AITA for blowing up at my sister who is a special needs teacher for repeatedly telling me how to parent my special needs child?

AITA for blowing up at my sister who is a special needs teacher for repeatedly telling me how to parent my special needs child?

I had a son when I was younger who turned out to have Cerebral Palsy as well as some developmental delays and needed some extra care. Back then I needed all the help I could get so my family treated my son like a community project, which was greatly appreciated at the time, but lately it’s been seeming like there are too many cooks in the kitchen.

While my son grew up, my sister got a degree in Special Needs Education and started teaching a special needs elementary class. Over the years, my sister has been increasingly giving my wife and I more and more unsolicited advice on how to parent my son. Which is fine in theory, but instead of taking us to the side and giving us her professional opinion, she tends to actively disregard the way we want to teach my son, in front of him, and in a condescending way. For example, when my son was being rude, I corrected him and sent him to his room. My sister stepped in and said “Don’t send him to his room, he doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Another example is: Lately we’ve been trying to promote independence in him so when my son said he was thirsty, I said “So go get yourself some water”. My sister said “Oh, I’ll get it!” So I respectfully responded to her saying “Actually can he get it himself? We are trying to teach him independence.” She answered with “No, he can’t do it himself.” Our son even protested and said he wanted to do it himself, but she sternly turned him down, only to get him his water for him.

There have been a ton of these little moments that have built up for me and my wife over time. To the point where we sat her down and had to talk boundaries with her. But it all came to a head again last Christmas when we went to visit my family.

The entire trip was filled with condescending corrections from my sister. The last straw is when my son had a meltdown and he marched into his room. I said I was going to go talk to him, but she stopped me and said “No, don’t. He needs to calm down” My wife and I exploded at the same exact moment. Telling her to stop telling us what to do and how to do it. She argued with us saying that it’s her job and we have repeatedly disrespected the fact that she has a degree in this. We told her that she doesn’t know what it’s like to be a parent and how being a teacher is completely different.

My sister ended up marching to her room mid-argument and I ended up consoling my wife who started frustratedly crying. Unfortunately, we had to leave for the airport right away so we went up to apologize to my sister for yelling but my sister was silent and didn’t reciprocate.

That was now 6 months ago. My only contact with my sister is through my mom since my sister won’t answer texts. My mom’s opinion is that nothing needs to be talked about because time will heal all wounds. My wife and I think that would fester into resentment which is upsetting to us because we are planning to have more kids soon and don’t want this issue arising with them again.

AITA here?

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