There is nothing more relaxing than sitting down with a fun coloring book, even as an adult.
And, sharing that with someone can be rewarding as long as they respect your boundaries.
Redditor Flaky_Tip encountered this very issue with her cousin. So she turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment.
She asked:
“AITA for not giving my cousin my coloring books?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“I (22, female) have a very large collection of those super intricate coloring books. I find them very relaxing.”
“I also have a little cousin, (4) who LOVES to color. Whenever she comes over I give her some children’s coloring books I keep on hand, but last week on her most recent visit she insisted on coloring in one of mine.”
“I don’t actually color in my books,”
“I print off copies of the page I want to do so I can color the picture again in the future. So I told my cousin she couldn’t color in the book but I could get her some pages.”
“I printed off a few pages from the book I was working in and she colored the same pictures I did.”
“I thought it was all fine until she went to show her mom.”
OP’s aunt didn’t find it cute.
“My aunt had a total melt down, she came to me and asked why I didn’t just give the book to her kid, she knows I have a ton.”
“She called me a selfish, greedy monster which I thought was a massive escalation compared to the issue.”
“I tried to explain my side of it but she kept yelling over me before grabbing my coloring book and ripping the pages out if it. She told me I had better think about my actions and be prepared to make it up to her and cousin the next time they come over.”
“I’ve gotten messages from a few family members telling me its stupid for a 22 year old to have coloring books and I should just give them to a kid that will appreciate them. I don’t know.”
“I think I may be the a**hole because it really was just a cheap coloring book I got at Walmart, it wouldn’t have hurt anything to just let cousin have the book to color in.”
“So reddit, AITA?”
Redditors gave their opinions on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Most Redditors agreed OP was not the a**hole.
“Of course you’re NTA. You didn’t deny your cousin anything and she wasn’t upset. Your aunt sounds insanely entitled.” ~ VocaBlank
“Not entitled, the aunt sounds straight up unhinged. Who the hell rips out pages of someone else’s book because their child didn’t get to color in it? That’s just weirdly over the top aggressive.”
“I wouldn’t let the crazy page ripper back in my home till they’d apologized and maybe replaced the book they destroyed, tbh.” ~ paspartuu
“Or at least paid for a replacement. She destroyed OP’s property for goodness sake! NTA” ~ Captainam3ricka
Many argued her aunt should pay OP back.
“This is why I buy kids and adult coloring books and then on the kids ones I choose my own adventure on how to color them in with more detail. The adult ones are so expensive. Coloring books are so personal to me, I wouldn’t just hand them over. They are my recharge activity after a week of working full time and going to school for my biology degree full time.”
“Edit: added why I get a combo of adult and kids coloring books, and a typo :)” ~ Lalalabambi
“Honestly after that outburst even paying me would not be enough. She wouldn’t be allowed in my home again. Cousin, sure, she can enter – but like a vampire the mom/aunt isn’t allowed entrance after her actions, which was basically demonstrating a full-on temper tantrum for her daughter to copy at a later date.”
“That kind of display isn’t welcome in my home.”
“(Edit: I’m not calling aunt immature, I’m saying she demonstrating behavior her kid will easily pick up; I am calling aunt unacceptable in terms of behavior, I’m struggling with figuring out how to make the sentence structure clear)” ~ Plantsandanger
Some shared their own stories.
“I remember oh so vividly when I was 10 years old, the time my dad snatched my copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets out of my hands and started ripping pages out and throwing them at me, all while screaming, in front of my mom and sister.”
“Because I forgot to brush my teeth that morning.” ~ soundlikebutactually
“I would have had an aneurysm. My HP books were fucking SACRED to me at that age. I would have thrown a fit for the ages.” ~ assassin_of_joy
“Seriously, do you want to see me go feral? Because ruining my shit was a one way ticket to me acting like a rabid dog, frothing at the mouth and actually biting. I did not fuck around.” ~ Plantsandanger
“I was always the good kid desperate to please my parents never ever showed any signs of adolescent rebellion. Then when I was 16 I was transitioned into the difficult track in third-year Spanish and was running a “C” average because that teacher was much harder.”
“When I told my mom she threw a fit and threatened to burn my Dungeons & Dragons books in order to motivate me. I absolutely snapped started screaming expletives at the top of my lungs and told her I would burn the effing house down with her inside.”
“Of course this resulted in the horrific punishment from beyond the pale of ‘taking you to your father to deal with,’ something she had never had to resort to before.”
“When she explained the depths of my iniquity, he got an annoyed look on his face and said ‘no one is going to be burning any books around here.'” ~ viridian-prime
“That reminded me of the time I was 16 and had tickets to a Linkin Park show. Now, I live in eastern Europe, and back then bands like that NEVER toured here: countries around, yes, but I was 15 so obviously that wasn’t a possibility and it was their first show here.”
“I was literally breathing just to go see that show. At the same time, my mental health issues began to show, like for example having panic attacks before school that made me miss some days, and before I had a perfect streak for years.”
“My mother was so pissed at my bad attendance one morning she came into my room and torn my AND MY FRIEND’s tickets right in front of me. Eventually somehow they managed to get two more tickets but man, it’s been over ten years and I still remember how heartbroken and angry I was.” ~ deathie
OP’s aunt could learn a few things from her daughter.
