A mum has been left outraged after her son's teacher started referring to him by an "unacceptable" nickname. The woman explained how her son's first grade teacher has also been encouraging the other children in his class to use this nickname over his given name.
She says it's important that everybody uses either his full name or the nickname she picked out for him because it has "cultural significance" to her. She said: "We had problems with his teacher calling him Alex and encouraging the other children to do it too. I told her not to, and it didn't seem to be a problem which I was thankful for."
However, the teacher continued to call the six-year-old Alex in class so the mum decided to confront her about it.
"I brought up that she should only call my son by his full name or Sasha, which we call him at home," she added on Reddit.
"[I said] referring to him as Alex isn't acceptable unless it's a genuine mistake. That's not the name we gave him, so I feel it's reasonable to require.
"She looked confused, acting somehow offended, like I inconvenienced her by asking her to refer to my son by his name and nothing else.
"I wasn't being hostile, I just told her to call him what was written on his papers, either Aleksandr or Sasha.
"I didn't ask her to correct the other kids, only that she made an attempt to use the right names."
After leaving her son's school, her husband called her out for being "unreasonable", telling her she needs to let go of the attachment she had to Aleksandr's name.
"[He said] nobody uses it where we live now, and that kids might take it as a bullying opportunity because kids can be cruel," she added.
"To me it's more important than that because it's the name I chose, and it has some cultural significance to me, so I'm not going to move on it.
"If I wanted a son named Alex (or more likely Alexey), that's what I would have named him."
While most users agreed teachers should call her students by their given names, others argued that her son is old enough to pick his own nickname.
One user said: "I think the teacher should be asking him how he wants to be called.
"I'm saying this as someone who works at a school and has seen many parents refuse to acknowledge their kid's wishes because they're attached to a name they chose because they chose it.
"Your kid is more comfortable going by this name and your kid is their own person. The mum's going to be real upset if her kid decides to go by Alex or change their name entirely when they get older."
Another user added: "Your kid is old enough to choose his own nickname. I get that your attached to that name, but it's not your name, it's your son’s name now.
"If he wants to be called Alex you should support that. Just because you chose something else doesn't really mean much. He’s his own person, and deserves to be treated as such."
A third user said: "I had a situation like this once. I had a student named Elizabeth. I asked her if she preferred Elizabeth or a shortened version like Beth or Liz.
"She told me she likes to be called Lizzie or Elizabeth, so I would call her both interchangeably.
"When it was time for a parent teacher conference, I referred to her as Lizzie to her mum. Her mum completely lost it on me.
"The girl was 11 and old enough to decide what she wanted to be called."
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