“When I told him he had to go home, he looked me in the eyes and replied, ‘No, I don’t think I will.'” The mother remembered:

We often find ourselves in difficult circumstances when deciding what to do might be difficult. Sadly, this was the case for one lady who anonymously shared her tale on Reddit’s AITA topic.

Her narrative included her 13-year-old son, Brian, and his 13-year-old buddy, Tom. The mother claims Tom isn’t a real friend to her kid and merely uses him to play the Nintendo Switch. However, since her son is autistic and doesn’t have many friends, she has had to put up with Tom hanging over at their home and staying for sleepovers.

On Tom’s most recent visit, however, when Brian begged him to leave after a long overnight, Tom refused. Brian tried again, but Tom was still there. This is when Tom’s mother intervened and asked her to leave. Instead of listening to the adult in the matter, Tom flatly said that he would not be leaving.

The mother attempted to disconnect the game system, but Tom was able to use it as a portable device. The mother attempted to contact Tom’s mother, but she declined since she was too busy at the moment to come pick up her son.

With no other option, the mother phoned the local police—they live in a small town, and the officer is a family acquaintance—and he came over to accompany Tom out of their home. Unsure whether she did the right thing in the scenario, the mother sought assistance on Reddit, where she received a mixed bag of comments.

The mother opens her message bluntly, writing:

“My kid, Brian [13], has a buddy named Tom [13], who I despise.”

She notes that Tom seems to have never been disciplined and believes that there are no repercussions for his actions. Despite telling her son that she believes Tom is simply using him for his Nintendo Switch, Brian is unable to absorb this since he is autistic and “very few other youngsters want to spend out with him.” “Every time Tom comes over, he’ll monopolize the Switch to play one of the games (typically a single-player game”),” she adds.

Tom came over one weekend, and we spent the whole evening playing until 3 a.m. He awoke around 10 a.m., but instead of joining his family for breakfast, he continued to play video games. Brian “had reached his limits and informed Tom that it was time to go home” around lunchtime. Tom ignored him, prompting Brian to seek guidance from his mom. She told him to be more “assertive,” but an hour later, he came back “almost in tears” because Tom “was just ignoring him or giving him short “a little more” answers.”

The mother then took over and offered to take Tom home, but he declined, saying he’d rather walk the two miles. She went on:

“When I told him he had to go home, he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘No, I don’t believe I will.'”

She then attempted to contact Tom’s mother, but she was unable to communicate. The mother then removed the Nintendo from the wall, which shut off the game, but Tom was able to switch to portable mode and sit in Brian’s beanbag chair, “oblivious to whatever [they] said.”

When she felt she had exhausted all possibilities, the mother phoned the police. Because they reside in a tiny town, the local cop is a close friend, and he came over right away. After the police informed Tom that there had been “complaints of trespassing,” Tom said that he was invited, but the mother told the officer that they “had requested him to go home.”

The officer asked Tom “whether he wanted to be punished for misdemeanor trespassing,” prompting the child to “get his act together” before the cops took him home. On his way out, the mother warned Tom that he would never return to her home and begged him not to speak to Brian at school or privately contact him.

Tom’s mother contacted her an hour later, yelling about how “horribly” she’d treated her son. The mother stayed composed and claimed that she had contacted her but had been informed that “she was engaged in a conference and couldn’t chat.” She thinks Tom gave his mother a “lie-filled narrative,” but she had the energy to debate, so she ordered her to “get her act together as a parent” and hung up. Since then, she’s gotten “dozens of angry messages” from Tom’s mother and unknown numbers, prompting her to question if she did the right thing.

Many commenters said that the mother wasn’t in the wrong, but many others pointed out that she could have tried a few other things, like telling Tom’s mother that she was going to call the police, taking away the handheld console, and setting stricter rules from the start instead of waiting until the situation got so bad.

What do you think of the mother’s conduct—was she justified in doing what she did? Please share this article so that others may comment.