Mom Enraged After Ex-Husband Sends Son to Private School Behind Her Back
A dad on Reddit is feeling conflicted after he enrolled his son in private school against his ex-wife's wishes.
"Our son is 8 and has an incredible curiosity about the world. His first and second grade teachers gave nothing but glowing praise in regards to both his intellectual growth and his demeanor. However, his third grade year has not gone well. His teacher has sent us several emails stating that our son does not pay attention in class and is cold toward his classmates," he wrote on Reddit, adding his son told both him and his ex-wife that he "hates" school.
"He said 'all the teacher does is yell at the class to stop talking, then the kids keep talking and we never do anything and I hate being there.' I can see the light fading from his eyes every day and every Sunday night mid-September on, he cries because he doesn't want to go to school," the frustrated father explained.
"I asked my son a few weeks ago if he wanted to change schools and he responded 'God, yes,'" he continued.
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The man shared that even though he and his ex-wife, with whom the little boy lives during the week, are "cooperative" when it comes to parenting, "bad feelings persist." When he asked her if it was OK to enroll their son in a "highly-regarded private school about 17 miles from our town," she became angry.
"She reacted in a way that was not expected. She said I was being ridiculous and that it would be an undue burden on her to take him to a different school (fair) and it would be unfair to her other children if only one of her kids got to go to private school. I added that I would take him and drop him off every day and pay for it 100 percent and she still said no. I told her I don't want our son to waste his potential, nor do I want to fail him as a father. In essence, she responded that our son is just being a brat because he's bored," the man wrote.
Against his ex-wife's wishes, he enrolled their son in the private school and paid for the $21,000 tuition without telling the boy's mother.
"He starts in August. I told him what I had done and he was elated. Naturally, upon hearing this news his mother was apoplectic. All I said was 'fine, you tell him he isn't going because you think he's a brat,'" he concluded.
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Users rallied behind the man in the comments, with many slamming his ex-wife for her reaction.
"She's not a good mom if she's willing to hurt your son just in the name of 'fairness.' Half-siblings whose non-shared parents have different means get treated differently. That's just how life works. Besides, if your wife is currently with her other kids' father, then it's also not fair that your son has divorced parents while his siblings don't. Courts may not look favorably on you enrolling him without his mom's permission, I'm not sure, but I do think you might want to try for more custody," one person wrote.
"You are absolutely doing the right thing by your son," another commented.
"My own kid struggled with the same issues in public school, same complaints and all. In 6th grade, I moved him to a $24K a year private school. He's in 7th now, and is a straight A student and tri-sport athlete," someone else shared.
