Should therapy for mental health struggles be considered a reward, like something a child has to earn? One dad seems to think so.
When his daughter’s grades stayed low despite therapy helping her bounce back in every other way, he suggested doing something pretty drastic.
Let’s see how the story plays out…
My daughter (14) had anxiety problems ever since she was little but it was not severe.
3 months ago, my daughter changed drastically. She stopped eating, talking to us or her friends and her marks dropped.
We were really concerned and her teachers strongly suggested we take her to therapy which we did and she was diagnosed with severe depression and social anxiety which was expected.
Guess she hit the teen trifecta: hormones, homework, and a side of existential crisis.
The therapy sessions look like they helped her well, in the first month she already began making progress and started talking to us and her friends again and is eating whatever her mother is cooking.
We were really happy to see this and every day she would get better and better.
The thing is, her marks did not. They are terrible and she ended up barely passing the year.
This is what infuriated me and made me cancel her therapy sessions.
I know to some it might sound terrible, but paying $120 per session and seeing no progress in her marks makes me feel like I am seriously wasting my money (now that she returned back to normal).
Therapy shouldn’t be a reward for good grades.
Not only that but since she really enjoys going to therapy I think telling her that she needs to get higher marks to continue her therapy sessions will motivate her to study harder and thus score better marks.
My wife disagrees with my logic and we had a massive argument because of it which ended up with her saying that she is going to pay from ‘her money’ which hurt me since I see my and her money as ours.
My daughter is also really upset on me and was begging me to keep her therapy sessions but I think I am going to stick to this plan.
AITA here?
That’s some pretty wild reasoning from this dad.
Reddit couldn’t get past the logic: pulling the plug on therapy because of grades is like canceling a doctor’s appointment because the cast isn’t fashionable enough.
This person thinks Dad is totally out of whack.
This has a lot of (rhetorical) questions.
This person went full on truth bomb.
Turns out, failing grades aren’t the biggest F in this story.
If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.
