Mom Asks If She Was Wrong To Tell Bookworm Daughter To 'Read Less'

A mom wanted to know if she was being reasonable with her daughter, so she posed her question to Reddit.

The problem? Her 22-year-old daughter is reading too much. The mom didn't really realize this until her daughter moved back in for the holidays a few weeks ago.

Let's get this out of the way: she's coming from a place of love (although that doesn't necessarily mean she's being reasonable).

Her daughter works from home, and from the sounds of it, every waking minute that isn't consumed by work is consumed by reading.

"She spends pretty much all her free time reading," wrote the mom.

While it sounds like she's able to maintain a job, this voracious reader's mom is getting a little sick of all the reading.

The other day in the car, things boiled over somewhat.

"I started talking to her about how she needs to read less and focus on university more," wrote the mom. "She tried to change the topic. I pointed out that instead of reading a billion novels each week, she could take half of that time and use it to study for university."

The daughter didn't appreciate the talk, and in the end became very upset with her mom. To mom's credit, she asked in good faith whether she'd done the right thing.

There was no shortage of opinions on Reddit.

There were some sarcastic replies ("it's not natural for a girl to read, soon she starts thinking and getting ideas").

One comment summed things up nicely:

"It sounds like she works hard and is independent, she deserves to relax and enjoy her hobby in peace, although if I were her, I would stop sharing anything personal with you."

A different comment shared a quote from Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, which states, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies ... The man who never reads lives only one."

One commenter pointed out that reading, like anything else, can become a bit of an unhealthy obsession.

"It sounds like you just want your daughter to have more of a balance of things in her life (and to not be distracted from her studies) and I think that's totally reasonable," they wrote. "Keep in mind, however, that at 22 there isn't much you can do to control that."

One opinion made an interesting point: this is controlling behavior:

"You want her to do other things, and none of it is motivated by current issues. Is her health deteriorating? Is she failing right now? Is she isolating herself around friends? You need to consider the wild possibility that during a pandemic, when normal life is on hold, she is using books to live vicariously."

We don't want to use any nasty words, so let's just say that the Reddit jury has determined that mom is being, well, a bit of a jerk here. It's a fascinating read, though, and a glimpse into relations between parents and young adult children.

Make sure to check out the thread and let us know your comments.