This Dad Refused to Take His Son to the ER, and the Internet Is Furious
Jul. 21 2023, Published 4:45 p.m. ET
And the award for worst parenting goes to ...
A man recently took to the wildly popular "AITA" subreddit and shared how his son's well-being provoked an argument between him and his wife.
The original poster, who goes by the handle u/throw_awayaccount60, said he refused to take his son to the ER after he flipped a four-wheeler. Read on for the whole story. Plus, keep scrolling to hear what the internet has to say.
This dad refused to take his injured son to the ER.
The OP said he recently took two of his sons on a week-long trip to his sister's house, while his wife stayed home with their daughters. Three days before they headed home, the OP's youngest son had the opportunity to take a spin on his uncle's four-wheeler — and let's just say things didn't go too well.
After about 10 minutes, the OP and uncle realized they didn't hear the four-wheeler anymore. So, they headed outside, only to hear the OP's son screaming. They ran toward the screams and found the boy near the back of the house, with the four-wheeler on top of him. Once they lifted the four-wheeler off the boy's leg, he couldn't walk on it.
The OP refused to take his son to the hospital, stating that his sister is a nurse and would examine him when her shift ended in a few hours. He also claimed he didn't seek medical attention because his "oldest daughter (17) recently was in the ER with a sprained ankle, and we found out we didn't have insurance." Um, what?!
"I figured just waiting for my sister would be fine, and if I needed to, I would take him to the hospital," the OP wrote. "I also pushed back our leaving date a day to hang out more with my sister."
The night of the accident, the OP's sons spoke with their mother, and she was furious at him for not taking their kid to the hospital, telling him, "There could have been other issues I couldn't see." Very true!
The OP concluded by revealing they are back home, and his son is "walking perfectly fine." However, his wife was still upset that the OP never took him to the hospital.
Reddit agrees that the OP is incredibly irresponsible.
As expected, the OP has been deemed the wrongdoer in this situation. The post racked in over 2,000 comments, with many Redditors pointing out how irresponsible he is for a 61-year-old father.
"This is irresponsible, dangerous, and terrible parenting at its worse. Leaving him in pain for 'a few hours' because you didn't want to take him to a hospital is unbelievably stupid. You got lucky this time," one Redditor wrote. "I'm honestly stunned you can't tell how bad this is."
"I was going to mention being medically neglectful, but honestly, I don't think it needs that qualifier," another person said. "You let a 9-year-old take off on 10 acres and didn't get him medical attention when the obvious happened. Fine or not, I get why your wife is mad. She probably questions whether she can trust you with the kids."
A third Redditor commented, "This isn't 'my boy tripped, and his ankle is a tad swollen,' this is 'a four-wheeler crashed and ended up on top of my kid.' That should be 'get them the f--- to the ER' territory, he could've had internal bleeding, among a million other things wrong that a few hours wait could've made deadly."
"Which do you prefer, risking money or your kid's life?" they asked.
"I hope you came here expecting ZERO sympathy from any of us," a fourth person stated. "You completely neglected your kid. I get it. You're 61. In your day, it was normal to treat your kids like the aftermath of eating some off food and getting food poisoning. Well, it's the modern day. Get into it and be a GOOD parent for a change."
Others (including us) wondered how the OP was oblivious about his insurance status — how did he not know he didn't have insurance? Why did he assume he had insurance?! We need answers, now.
