A 16-year-old brother took to Reddit to ask if he was in the wrong for telling his sister, who is 10, that she should not believe she could talk to her pet parrot.
As the teen wrote, the family is obsessed with the bird. His older sisters, the younger one, and the parents “keep buying him toys, new food, making him new fruit and vegetable mixes to try out, etc.”
The bird also has its room so that he “can sleep better at night.”
The boy does not care for the parrot, and the parrot sounds like he is not too keen on him either.
The teenager said his 10-year-old sister Emma talked to the bird, saying, “You know I love you, right?” The boy responded, “You know he doesn’t understand you, right.”
The teen then wrote that he “didn’t want her to actually believe this bird can understand what she is saying since she watches a lot of Disney movies, so I feel like they could have given her the wrong idea.”
The girl told him to stop bothering him, but she talked to their mom about what had happened.
The mom thinks “it was harmless for my sister to talk to her pet and that the bird ‘reciprocated her feelings.'” The teen believes “this will harm my sister’s way of thinking and get her bullied at school.”
So, he wondered if he was wrong, and Reddit users delivered.
One of the most upvoted comments read, “I asked my dog. You are the a…hole.”
It was followed by, “My kitten agrees. The older cats declined to comment at this time.”
Another poster added, “My parrot could string together words better than a toddler.”
Clearly, the teen did not know that you do not mess with animal lovers. Someone wrote how they have daily conversations with their cat and chickens, though “my chickens reply more than my cat does.”
This person chimed in, “I talked to the crows outside. They’re pretty smart and have helped me through some tough times.” They clarified that these animals agreed that the original poster was wrong.
Another added, “My iguana just weighed in as well.” The iguana also came to the same conclusion.
Some were quite hilarious, as one Reddit user explained, “My seven pets couldn’t come to an agreement.” They added how the turtle did not want to vote and the puppy was too nice.
Others tried to explain to the original poster why he was not doing his sister any favors, “you’re not her parent, and what she’s doing is harmless and normal.”
Some pointed out how parrots are pretty intelligent, saying, “has this guy not researched birds at all? There are several breeds of birds like parrots and such that are actually highly intelligent and do understand stuff and can be taught things like numbers and colors.”
Another Redditor reminded the poster, “My cat says there’s magic in a child’s imagination.”
While many tried to be funny, some managed to break the Internet, as this person wrote, “My bearded dragon said the same thing.”
And others were snarky, “I’m not at home right now, so I telepathically asked my cat, and she agrees.”
People certainly did not lack a sense of humor, “My cats all agree, which is rare.”
While pretty much every person, as well as their pets, agreed the original poster is in the wrong, one stated, “It’s nice to talk to animals, even if you are only talking to yourself.”
They added: “I also firmly believe that even if they don’t understand what you are saying, they get the sentiment and friendship of it.”
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One suggested, “you are jealous because your family is bonding over their new pet, and you aren’t a part of it.”
Yet another person echoed this sentiment, “You sound very young & your feelings are hurt. Do you feel ignored now that your family has a pet? Or did you want a different pet?”
Another gave some info on parrots, “Depending on the species, that parrot may be living with your family for several decades. Having Emma bond with it is perfectly all right.”
Finally, the original poster wrote in an update that they might have been wrong “for being blunt with my sister and not explaining things better to her or mom.”
The viral thread gathered nearly 7k comments and counting.