I insulted my sister by telling her that her son is addicted to the iPad, she is ruining his life

An Australian woman’s desperate plea for advice for her grandson has gone viral after she shared her observations on the AITA Reddit forum.

She describes how her sister and her husband have a 10-year-old son whom she calls “Jimothy” who she takes care of occasionally on weekends and mornings.

It was about a year ago when she first noticed a subtle and disturbing change in his demeanor.

“The accent got thicker”

About a year ago, we started to notice that Jimothy was starting to develop an American accent and we’re Australian.

Toddlers have phases, and so I didn’t want to do one thing. But over the next few months, the accent got thicker and Jimothy grew more irritated.

My husband and I brought this up with my sister, who said that Jimothy wasn’t too upset when she was with him. Then he started to lose interest in almost all the activities he used to enjoy.

“Again, this was a concern for me as it got worse every weekend. He complained about being bored, but when we offered him an exhaustive list of all the things we could do with him, he said no to every single one.

She said that earlier this year when he returned to school, classmates asked him when he had moved to Australia because his American accent was so strong.

My husband and I were really wondering what was going on.

It was at his birthday party a few months later that she realized what was really going on.

He was on an iPad, scrolling some kind of short content I didn’t recognize. His friends wanted to play with him, and he just didn’t notice they were there. People were giving him gifts and he acted like he was worried about having to turn off the iPad.

Never before have any of my nieces or nephews reacted like this to me giving them money and delicious sweets.

I told my sister that something was going on and that Jimothy is obviously not well. She seemed very offended that I was questioning her parenting choices as she said, and she decided that my husband and I should stop babysitting Jimothy.

“He was significantly weaker”

At a more recent family gathering, the wife says Jimothy was completely glued to the iPad.

He was noticeably thinner, which I suspect was because he was forgetting to eat in favor of iPad time.

I needed to talk to my sister and her husband. I told them what I thought, that a year ago Jimothy was an energetic kid who got along really well with everyone, and now he’s withdrawn and it’s obvious just by looking at him that he’s skipping meals.

My sister denied any change in Jimothy’s behavior, but her husband admitted that I was right to a point, and Jimothy’s friends had stopped trying to date him because he said no 100 percent of the time. I told my sister that she was ruining Jimothy’s life by continuing to allow this iPad stuff to happen.

She started yelling at me and I left the party.

A hundred people commented on the post to advise the OP that no, she is not an a-hole in this situation and clearly only cares about her grandson.

The boy is definitely addicted to the iPad which is a big concern, said one respondent.

If his parents won’t listen, maybe the OP can bring it up to his teacher/school or someone else who can maybe get the parents to see that there is a real concern or get some kind of child health agency involved ?

Another agreed: The child is clearly deteriorating. I wouldn’t be surprised if he grows up with depression and anxiety when dealing with social interactions at school and work. It’s great that you and your husband are taking care of Jimothy. At the end of the day, you tried to help, so let them handle the future issues that will surely arise in the future.

“iPad can be a coping mechanism”

One astute user suggested that while using the iPad is a problem, it may be more of an effect rather than the root cause of his problems.

If he suffers from anxiety and/or depression, the iPad can be a coping mechanism and a form of self-treatment of the symptoms. It seems like a professional might be able to give them all some healthier tips in navigating normal pre-adolescent anxiety.

This is the age when social dynamics really start to change, and avoiding it all isn’t the best way to deal with it, but it might not be the cause. In other words, simply removing the iPad and nothing else can be harmful.

Finally, one was convinced that it was not too late to step in and get help.

Her son needs help, and he needs it now. She made a mistake as a parent, but for now it is still correctable. But it won’t be if she continues to ignore him. She just needs to figure this out before it’s too late.