A mom on Reddit is giving one from last week a total run for her money. It was then that we stumbled upon a mom who left her daughter at a store for nearly two hours (!!!) and wasn’t answering her phone. When she finally returned, she claimed she had driven to another store she didn’t think her daughter would like. Which is still insane, and Reddit was calling major BS.
Well, now we’ve found a mom who asked her 17-year-old if she would watch her 9-year-old sister, who has autism, on Saturday so she could go out with friends. “[My mom] doesn’t do this often since she was in a toxic relationship for 11 years, so I agreed to help (despite knowing my sister’s bedtime anxiety).”
What Happened?
This teen who originally posted (the “OP”) said her mom was supposed to come home at around 11 p.m. or midnight, but she didn’t show. OP tried calling and texting — to no avail. Once 1 a.m. rolled around, she reached out to an older sister and two of her aunts for help. All this time, she was trying to help her sister go to sleep, even though the 9-year-old typically struggles to do so without her mom.
“No one responded (unsurprisingly) and by 2 a.m. I was sh*tting myself,” OP said. “My little sister finally went to sleep but I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping without my mum being safely home.”
OP kept trying to contact her mom until 4 a.m. At that point, she locked the door and hid a key.
Can you imagine being in this teen’s shoes? In this minor’s shoes? She was left at home with her sister, her AWOL mom had been out for hours longer than expected, and no one was there to help or comfort her. So she had to make the call to lock up and try to get some shut-eye.
“I woke up at 7 a.m. to find my mum still hadn’t returned,” OP said. “I waited for a reply and she called around 9 a.m. explaining she went clubbing and fell asleep at her shop since she’d had too much to drink.”
AITA for texting family members when my Mum doesn’t come home?
byu/msmeii inAmItheAsshole
What?! She just fell asleep?! And didn’t think to call or text her daughter at any point?! What?! She went to her shop and didn’t think, “Hmm, maybe I should go sleep at home with my girls?!”
Instead of apologizing profusely when she got home, OP’s mom dug her heels in.
“She complained about me involving others and threatened to stop going out. Saying, and I quote, ‘Right well I’ll just never go out again then if this is what’s going to happen,’ and telling me that I had made her feel guilty for having fun.”
“She told me that I’m 17 and could’ve handled it myself and that I didn’t need to text others, making them unnecessarily worried,” OP said.
Now she wants to know, “AITA for texting family members when my Mum doesn’t come home?”
Important Edit
OP felt the need to go back and clarify that she “didn’t care” that her mom went clubbing. That wasn’t the point.
“I was annoyed at her lack of communication,” OP said. “… And I know that if it was the other way around, she’d have a problem.”
DING. DING. DING. Of course, her mom would have a problem if this was the other way around. (As she should!)
“I made a sarcastic comment about how I won’t bother next time and if she’s dead then ‘oopsie.’ I know it was wrong of me to say but I was genuinely concerned for her safety and her having a go pissed me off.”
Her mom told her that she wasn’t looking at her phone because she was out having fun and that she should have assumed this. Even though OP “literally had no clue” her mom was going clubbing.
To make matters worse, OP felt the need to share that she has Tourette’s Syndrome and that stressful situations can exacerbate things. If she had a tic attack because of the added stress, her little sister could have easily hurt herself or OP without anyone there to look out for either of them.
“Did I make the wrong choice by texting others? I feel stupid honestly,” OP said, concluding a heartbreaking post.
Reddit’s Reaction
Redditors feel so deeply for this poor teen who they agree was way more mature than her mother. And there’s no way her mom wouldn’t have been “livid” if OP had “pulled this type of stunt.” She wouldn’t be going on and on about it being “general knowledge” that you aren’t looking at your phone when you’re having fun at a club.
“I’m sorry, it’s probably a good thing if your mom were to ‘just never go out again’ if she is going to behave as irresponsibly as this,” said the top comment with more than 4.6 thousand upvotes. “Even the drunkest of drunk people can text. She could have given you a heads up and you wouldn’t have been so understandably worried.”
Honestly, this mom should be thanking her lucky stars that this problem remained within the family.
“If she’d hired a babysitter until 12 and didn’t return their calls/texts, she’d have probably found her kid at the police station and social services involved when she finally turned up at 9 a.m.,” one Redditor said. “She’s lashing out at you and trying to make you feel small and stupid because you exposed her shit behavior to other adults in the family.”
“She was embarrassed that other people learned about her leaving the two of you alone without notice. That’s also why she tried to deflect the blame and reacted with that ‘I’ll never go out again’ reaction…your mom seems to have reverted to being a teenager.”
Also … c’mon … there’s no way this mom is giving her daughter the full story.
“Also, her 17yo might buy her story about accidentally falling asleep in her shop or whatever, but the adults in the family [will realize] her plans never included dinner with friends and being home by midnight. Her irresponsibility is now known in the family and, with any luck, she’ll get some flak for it.”
Flack for her irresponsible actions. And flak for all the gaslighting and guilt-tripping that followed.
Before you go, check out some of Reddit’s most wicked step-parent stories.
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