AITA for raising my son differently from how my ex-wife raises him

Nta. You’re allowed to have your own parenting style with your son. You just need to be responsible about it.

You don’t have to be strict with him or be like her or whatever. You’re allowed to let him sleep in sometimes, watch tv, eat unhealthy things (within reason) , et cetera., but you need to balance things out. For example, setting a bed time, setting a wake up time, going out a little more, things like that. Just ensure that you’re also taking on as much responsibility as possible with him during the time that you have him, too.

Also, sit down and have a conversation with your ex for the love of god. Explain to her that you do things differently than her, work something out between the two of you, and set a boundary about her monitoring the two of you during your time with him. It’s not her job to be trying to monitor what the two of you are doing. “How was your day” versus “what did you guys do? I think you should go do x y z” are two very different things and y’all just need to get on the same page about those things. You don’t need to agree or do things the same way, but you need to both be aware about what’s going on during the time where one of you has him vs the other.

/r/AmItheAsshole Thread