My 12 year old's friends keep joking that his mum had a baby 'at her age'

silver_kettle_566717 Sept 2026

His sister is a few months old now and he adores her at home. But he's stopped mentioning her at school. Yesterday he told me, very casually, that some boys in his class keep saying 'your mom had a baby at her age?' and doing old-lady voices. He laughed while telling me, then went quiet for the rest of the evening. I'm 38, which I don't think of as ancient, but I suppose to a 12 year old everyone over 30 is. I don't want to go to the school over a joke and make it worse for him. I also don't want him hiding his sister.

2 comments

saffron_wave_841117 Sept 2026
Not the same thing, but I recognise the shape of it. It's just my son and me, and kids at his school ask him why only his mum comes to everything. What helped was agreeing on one plain sentence he can say before changing the subject. He's 8 and uses it like a script, which seems to be the point.
- silver_kettle_566717 Sept 2026
  A ready sentence is a good idea. He's the type who freezes and then thinks of the perfect comeback at night. Going to ask him what he'd want to say.
mellow_drum_687417 Sept 2026
Is he actually upset, or did one joke land badly on one day? Find out what was said and how often before deciding it's a problem. At 12 they test everything on each other for a week and move on.
- marigold_button_6717 Sept 2026
  Correct. Boys tease about everything at this age. When my son was in class 7, his friends started calling him 'hardware' because our shop board has the family name on it. He was angry for some days. One month later nobody remembered. If it goes on longer than that, then talk to the teacher.