A man seeks support from the Reddit community after a disagreement with his wife over their 5-year-old daughter’s injury. What seemed to be an ordinary morning within the poster’s household escalates quickly into a family dispute.
“Last night my daughter was playing with legos before bedtime in the living room,” the man recounts in a Reddit post. “This morning when our daughter woke up she walked onto the living room rug and suddenly began crying out hopping on one foot. It was still early morning and we all were still a bit groggy.”
At the time, the mother dismissed the child’s pain, insisting she had merely tripped on the rug. But the father took a more empathetic approach. “I was quiet about the situation until this point where I stood up for our daughter and said I think she stepped on something because she was playing with legos last night,” he explains.
Closely inspecting her foot, the father discovered she was bleeding. He promptly cleaned the wound, applied a bandage, and even attempted to lighten the mood by showing her a video of other people stepping on LEGO bricks.
However, the mother’s reaction to her husband’s intervention was intense and unexpected. “After this, my wife storms up the stairs angrily,” he explains. “I wait a while to see if she comes back but she doesn’t.” When he later confronts her about her behavior, she accuses him and their daughter of “ganging up on her.”
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The father explains his actions were solely focused on helping their daughter. “I told her she was acting childish and the situation was about helping our daughter, not about her,” he notes. This led to an argument which led to the poster eventually shutting down in an effort to protect his daughter from witnessing the conflict.
He sheds some light on his wife’s personality, stating, “My wife has always been an emotionally sensitive person. I noticed she has the tendency to victimize herself in tense situations.” The father now finds himself in a difficult position, feeling unfairly treated for what he believes was the right course of action.
“I now feel like I’m in the dog house for no good reason,” he explains, expressing his frustration. “I understand my wife may feel like it’s us against her and probably feels isolated, but I personally feel she is being immature and self absorbed in this situation.”
The Reddit community sided with the father in this situation with many commentators praising him for his attentiveness to his daughter’s needs. They also expressed concern about the mother’s reaction, suggesting that her behavior might indicate emotional issues that need to be addressed.
“This kind of thing shouldn’t be enabled by you going along with being “in the doghouse.” She was wrong. Your daughter was hurt and you took care of that. It wasn’t a plot to show your wife up. That’s the line you need to hold with her,” writes one user. Another suggests, “Use this as an opportunity to teach your daughter about sharing her feelings and emotions.”
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