The subreddit “AITA,” or “Am I the A**hole,” is designed for users to come post about disagreements that they’ve been going through, with the opportunity to get some outside perspectives on the situation. The father was feeling conflicted after having an argument with his wife over the safety of their son.
He had convinced his wife their baby was missing after noticing she leaves him in the car alone.
This father begins to explain this surprising story with context leading up to the incident. Two months before, he discovered that his wife had a habit that made him deeply worried. She often left their baby in the car when she ran inside for relatively quick errands. In his post, he wrote about a talk they had, trying to decide where to get food. He suggested a drive-thru because it would be easier with the baby, but she said it was unnecessary. He wrote, “She told me it’s not a big deal to leave the baby in the car to run in and pick it up really fast. I had no idea she ever did this.” RELATED: ‘Lost’ Boy Asks To Borrow Woman’s Phone To Get Help But Instead Uses Venmo To Steal Almost $4,000 He realized that she had been doing this since their baby was born when she had to run in for short errands, and he was shocked. He wrote that although their neighborhood isn’t very dangerous, it also isn’t the safest, either. Later, in an edit, he specifies that his wife leaves the car on, as well, so she can keep the heat or air conditioning on. The father shared that after he confronted her and asked her not to, “she told me she never stopped to think about the potential dangers and that she would stop doing it.” For a while, that’s all there was to the story. But then, on his way home one day, he saw his wife’s car parked outside of a gas station by their house. He decided to stop and say hi and pick up some food, so he pulled in and parked.
However, when he began to walk up, he realized that their son was alone in the car again in his car seat. He said, “the car wasn’t even locked.”
When he saw his son left in the car, he was furious, writing, “I don’t know what came over me.” He wanted to show his wife what could happen if she kept doing this, so he picked up his son and put him in his own car, parking farther away. He wrote, “It took SIX MINUTES for her to appear.” However, she was shaken by his “lesson.” He said, “When she saw that he was gone she looked stunned for a second and then started to frantically look around and cry.” The father insisted in his post that the charade did not go on long. According to him, he drove up as soon as she pulled out her phone. He showed her that their son was actually in his car, but while she was relieved at first, she soon became furious with him, ignoring him the rest of the day. RELATED: Woman Debates Whether To Invite Mom Wedding Dress Shopping Because Of Something She Said Years Ago The next day, she tried to get him to apologize to her, but he disagreed and wanted her to apologize instead. At this impasse, he went to ask for a third opinion from the thousands of users on Reddit’s “AITA.”
Reddit voted that the husband was “Not the A-hole.”
Despite the shocking element of the situation that he pulled on his wife, many of the most-liked comments did not think the husband was the a**hole in this situation — most of the commentors were far more concerned about the safety of the baby should the mother continue to leave him in the car. Even though the father specified that his wife leaves the car running with the heat or air conditioning running, many commentors were unconvinced that this meant it was safe for the baby without supervision. They pointed out several other risks involved that gave the husband’s perspective merit. Meanwhile, one of the most damning things for many of the users who responded was that the mother had previously promised to stop, and yet she continued to do it against the father’s wishes. Finally, while Reddit has not heard an update on their conflict, we can only hope that thousands of votes and voices online will mean that their baby is not in a car by himself for a long, long time. RELATED: Woman Wonders If She’s Wrong For Telling Boyfriend He’s ‘Cheap’ Because Of Valentine’s Day Gift He Made Amanda Hartmann is a writer and editorial intern at YourTango who writes on news and entertainment.
