‘My son cut up photos of my late mum and I’m furious’

“I’ve gone to stay with my dad and my husband says I’m overreacting and upsetting our boy,” the mum-of-one reveals.

Alicia was mourning her mum when her son cut up old family photos. Photo: iStock

Alicia was 16 when her mum passed away after struggling with addiction.

The young mum loved her own mum very much and she only has a few special objects to remember her by: a few pieces of jewellery and a photo book full of university and adult photos.

“I’m going through a second wave of grief right now, just missing her often,” she explained on Reddit.

“My son Tom sees me crying a lot and my husband wanted me to explain things to him because he seemed confused.”

One night before he went to sleep, Alicia sat down with Tom and told him about his grandma, and they looked through the photobook together.

“It was one of the most beautiful moments in life,” she recalled.  

But the pleasant feeling didn’t last. Two days later, Alicia found Tom in his room with the photobook.

The nine-year-old had cut up a number of pictures and glued them to a piece of paper.

“All I could do was stand there and say, ‘Oh shit’.”

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Alicia was mourning her mum when her son cut up old family photos. Photo: iStock

Mum leaves family home after son cuts up photos

Alicia left the room and went to tell her husband what happened. Tom came downstairs and told his mum he had just wanted to do an art project for her.

It was too much for the grieving mum to bear. She packed a bag and went to her dad’s house for the night. But she left Tom feeling horribly guilty and confused.

“My husband is trying to give me space but keeps calling and overwhelming me,” she said.

“I told him I was upset with our kid and he defended him saying that it’s just how he expressed himself and I was overreacting and upsetting him.”

The aftermath of the disastrous art project is that everyone is upset. Alicia feels guilty for making her Tom upset, Tom feels bad for ruining the photos. Alicia’s husband believes she should let it go. Even Alicia’s dad believes her husband is being too hard on her.

Reddit community tells mum to go home

While the Reddit community was sympathetic to Alicia for her loss, most people believed she needed to repair the rift that had formed between her and Tom.

“It’s ok to be upset, but your son didn’t destroy the pictures to take them away from you,” one person said. “I guarantee he was trying to make something to him mum feel better. Get out of the house for some air, go to your dad’s house and talk, but you should have come home.”

“You ned to go and make things right with your boy” said another. “He must be beside himself, poor thing, knowing he made his mum leave.”

Others believed that Alicia should have time away from her family.

‘No matter what the intent was, the pictures are still destroyed,” said one person. “It’s easy to say get over it, but to her it seems to be a serious loss that she needs time to deal with.”

*Names have been changed.

Originally published as ‘My son cut up photos of my late mum and I’m furious’