u/dull_bananas

My (16M) mom (40F) was driving me to school. Suddenly she picked up her phone and started typing while driving. A minute later she swerved the car into oncoming traffic, and we got into a really bad crash. My mom and I ended up being okay, but I saw my crush (18F) from the other car being put into an ambulance. I was staring at her beautiful long black hair for a few seconds, when all of the sudden I was startled by my mom loudly telling me “Don’t snitch on me.” I told her “But you might have killed someone.” She said “You know what they say to writers: kill your darlings.” I said “You care too much about writing.” She said “But.. but… Abbie Emmons told me how to make my story matter. So now my story matters more than other people. And they say just write just write just write. I was initially afraid to write while driving, but then I remembered: just write. Those words gave me courage.” I eventually rolled down my window and told the cop that Mom was writing while driving. Now mom is mad. AITA?

/uj edit: i forgot to make it more clear that the thing mom was typing in was her manuscript on her phone

My (40F) son (16M) read a short story to me after he got home from school. He apparently wrote it in the school’s creative writing club. While I was listening to it, I realized it violated the “show, don’t tell” rule. If I keep on letting my son do low-quality writing, then this family’s reputation would be ruined. So I decided to delete the manuscript of his work-in-progress novel from our shared Google Drive to prevent him from publishing it. AITA for not killing my darling?

Martian years