A woman on Reddit is frustrated with her husband for attempting to force their teenage daughter out of her harmless “emo” phase.
As a reward for good behavior and grades, the 13-year-old girl, who is “really into emo/Y2K” fashion, was recently allowed to purchase some new clothing and makeup. However, the girl’s dad, who is from a “strict Christian household,” thinks her edgy new wardrobe is a gateway to satanism.
“He sees it as her acting up and ‘worshiping satanic practices’ in his words. I don’t know whether I identify as a Christian anymore, but I’m not as strict as him,” the mom wrote in her post.
“He’s been trying to dissuade her and has tried using punishments (no electronics, etc.) which haven’t worked. All this has done is just make her more distant from him,” she added.
The woman doesn’t see a problem with her daughter’s clothing, but her husband believes she’s “putting our daughter on a bad path because I’m ‘encouraging’ her to be defiant.”
The man even reached out to his wife’s father and mother-in-law, who sent her messages about “fixing” her daughter and advised her to send the teen to a Christian summer camp.
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In the comments section, Reddit users slammed the man’s religious fearmongering.
“It’s eyeliner, Jim, not a gateway to hell,” one user wrote.
“If your husband is seeing Satan and demons in eyeliner, it might be time to sign him up for some therapy,” another recommended.
“There is nothing satanic about being emo. Your husband is going to regret this later when your daughter wants nothing to do with him,” someone else commented.
Users also advised the mom to not let her family sign her daughter up for any sort of religious camp.
“Your daughter is learning how to express herself and trying to suppress that will only make her resent you. Also those Christian camps for ‘troubled teens’ are often extremely corrupt and traumatizing. It’s good to raise somebody with the capability to be defiant, that way she knows how to stand up for things that aren’t right,” one person wrote.
“Do not send her to a camp. There are hundreds if not thousands of well-documented cases of systemic abuse stretching back decades, as well as dozens of deaths. If your husband indicates that he intends to send her to one of those vile places, then you need to take your daughter and run,” another commented.