Being a parent is one of the most adorable jobs in the world. And, probably, one of the toughest, too. Parents often look for help wherever they can, but some people end up looking for it not in the proper places. One woman took to Reddit to complain that her son didn’t help her watch her other children, and people’s reactions were very emotional. And her other son has seen mom’s post online and also decided to respond.
The woman turned to Reddit in order to get at least some advice.
A woman, 46, wrote a post in one of the Reddit communities, telling people about her family circumstances and, in particular, about her relationship with her oldest son. She introduced herself as a mother of 5. She added that she’s five months pregnant. The woman detailed that she has twin girls who she’d call Lisa and Sophia, both 10 years old; her youngest boy, Joshua is 17, her baby girl, Emily is one, and her oldest son, Danny is 21.
The woman wrote that they were on a trip to Hawaii a few weeks ago, her husband didn’t come because of an unexpected work emergency, but he told them to have fun. The woman’s twins cried, a lot, so her son Joshua, and she comforted them, but Danny stood doing nothing.
The woman recalls that they had so many fun things planned to do with their father, but since he couldn’t come, they didn’t end up doing much. But whatever they did, (except eat) Danny was absent for it. The woman explained that, for example, going to the beach, banana boats, Luaus, and watching his younger sisters when they just wanted to go to the pool, he’d stay in his room on his phone, chatting with his friends.
The woman got infuriated about her oldest son’s “laziness”.
The woman continues her story, saying that the relationship between her son and her was becoming really tense. The next week of vacation, she was stressed with Danny. She admitted that she hated having to put most of the work on Josh because he wanted to have fun too, and her daughters were helping with the baby. She called him down to help, but he said he “wanted to relax and chill”.
The woman added that, in fact, they literally came there to relax, chill, and have fun, though they weren’t having lots of fun with less help, a crying baby, two ten-year-olds who wanted to go to the pool but had to do what she had capability of doing while carrying, and her other son who wanted to get away from his sisters for at least an hour. It was a mess.
The mom-of-five finally lost her temper.
At one point, the woman felt like it was enough for her. She shouted at her son, saying, “If you can’t step up and help the woman who gave birth to you, lets you live in her house rent-free, while giving you a job, whose money you just spend on silly games instead of getting an apartment, then you can get out of my house and pay for your own stuff.”
He looked shocked and left, and just about an hour after, the woman’s SIL, and also her in-laws called, asking her why she’d shout at her son when he did nothing.
She told them, “Yeah, he’s been doing nothing except eating and chatting in his room with his silly friends, instead of helping his mother and siblings” and hung up.
Mom decided to give some more explanation after people in the comments were infuriated.
The woman made an edit to her initial post, after many users on Reddit came to the comments and told her that she was actually wrong. She added the following information, “I should’ve added more details to avoid confusion. Danny does minimal work, I am not that type of parent. He babysits all day for one or twice a month when his dad and I want to have sometime alone. Josh also steps up as frequently as Danny, too.”
The woman gave more details about her other son, writing, “Danny does also have a job I gave him, but he is an introvert, stays in his room all day, everyday when he doesn’t have work which is only twice or three times a week, only gets out to eat or go out to parties to hang out with friends, other than that, I expect nothing less from him than, him keeping up good work in his job, and helping out every once in a while with his sisters, just as Josh does, but his dad and I do on a daily basis.”
People in the comments were fuming because of the situation.
The users of Reddit expressed their points of view, and the majority didn’t support the mom-of-5. One user wrote, “It was your choice to give birth to 5 kids. Not Danny’s. And you gave birth to 5 KIDS, not 1 kid and 4 babysitters.”
Another user added, “What a nightmare. He’s not your husband or the father of your kids. Stop popping them out if you can’t handle so many. And I say this as a parent.”
The third person commented, “These are YOUR kids. Stop parentifying your other children to do childcare for you. If you can’t handle your own children, you shouldn’t have had so many. If you couldn’t handle them alone on vacation you shouldn’t have taken the vacation.”
But one comment was especially dramatic, because it was written by one of the woman’s sons.
Danny, the woman’s younger son, came to the comments to tell his own view of the story.
The whole story took an even more dramatic turn, when a woman’s son, Joshua, came to the comments after he found mom’s post online. He expressed his point in a very emotional way, and wasn’t defending his mom at all.
The boy wrote, “You’re really funny like SO FUNNYY HAHA. I’m only posting this because I’ve been at nana’s for the past few weeks after this vacation. Which was not a vacation at all, not because of ‘Danny’, but because of you. Are you the one always telling us that lies always catch up to you in the worst of times? Well, this is one of them. You don’t just put my brother to ‘babysit’ for two days every few months or whatever. It’s every day, no matter what he has going on.”
The young man continues, not hiding his emotions, that seemed to overwhelm him, “You say to me no, no honey you have to take care of your sisters, plan going out with friends for another week. Then that week you and your husband want to go out on a date and me and my brother are left taking care of your other offspring.”
Joshua finishes his comment, saying, “Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my sisters to death, but the lack of attention they get from you is rubbing off on me. They want to play Barbies more often with me or my brother, while you and your husband work or go out. My birthday’s next week, so I’ll be moving to nana’s the day after. So glad I’m turning 18. Oh, you also forgot to mention that the only reason your older son is still living with you in that monstrosity of a house is because he is autistic. You of all people should’ve mentioned that!”
And here’s yet another story with a big family dilemma. A woman kicked her pregnant daughter out of her house, together with her 6 kids, and explained the reason why she made this painful decision.
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