Mom slammed for 'traumatizing' son while teaching him about bicycle safety

A mom has severely divided opinions on social media this week after "traumatizing" her son while teaching him about bicycle safety.

The controversy began when the mother in question took to a subforum on Reddit called Am I The A**hole?, where users post about a recent grievance or conflict they've had and the community then votes on whether or not the original poster was in the wrong.

The user, who went by the handle 'anon26291' wrote: "AITA for 'traumatizing' my son?"

In a now-deleted post, the mom stated that she was trying to convince her 13-year-old son to wear a helmet while riding his BMX, but alleged that her boy wasn't listening to her.

The woman claims to have already witnessed a close friend crack their skull in a riding accident, and that this motivated her to take extreme measures to ensure her child took his own safety seriously.

She claims that she showed him graphic and gory images of people who had suffered badly thanks to their neglecting to wear helmets. She believed that he would be able to handle it, as it often plays violent video games like Grand Theft Auto.

However, her young son apparently reacted badly, bursting into floods of tears at the sight of what she'd shown him.

Per She Knows, the woman added:

"My husband is p***ed at me. He yelled at me: 'what you did was overkill and borderline abusive.' I am holding my ground on this.

"My son is not biking anywhere until we find a solution. It looks [like] I’m driving him wherever he needs to go.

"He started crying, saying I traumatized him and now I’m taking his freedom away. I don’t know what to do but I can’t trust him."

On Reddit, opinions on the mom's parenting methods were divided, with some agreeing that she went too far.

For instance, one person commented: "I think you went a little too far. You know, I watched a video of a guy in prison somewhere in Brazil and they killed another by stabbing him over 150 times. I watched this when I was 18 and I'm now 35 and I still think about it randomly quite often."

Another Redditor wrote: "I stumbled upon videos like what OP showed their son at around the same age as him, videos of murder, decapitation, suicide etc.

I still think about those videos to this day, after nearly ten years. Definitely YTA, and it's disappointing that not many can see how messed up this can make a person.

A third person wrote: "As much as I want to say you're not TA your edit is remarkably unthoughtful. Seeing violence in a fictional context where you know no one is actually getting hurt is much easier to handle than watching actual accident footage and deaths.

"You should've sat down with your husband again to work out something else."

However, other Redditors opined that the woman was just showing her son some tough love.

For instance, one person wrote: "When I was in elementary school, they literally had a program where a TBI patient talked to us about the importance of helmets.

"After his bike accident (pictures included), he was confined to a wheelchair, had mental difficulties, and needed around-the-clock care. Definitely scared the bejesus out of us and we all wore helmets from that day on."

Another person wrote: "It's not trauma it's a legitimate warning of the consequences of his actions. Some kids get it when mom says: 'if you do this you could literally die' and some need the video."

Finally, someone else wrote: "I was shown lots of horrific s*** when I was younger to prevent stuff like this, annnd yeah even to this day I wear a helmet and a seatbelt, I don't screw around traintracks or drive under the influence.

"It wasn't traumatizing it was real life consequences we need to be aware of. [sic]"

So, was the mom in the wrong for her heavy-handed tactics? Or was she right for trying to scare her son into being safe? Let us know what you think in the comments section.