Guilty Mom’s Reddit Post Sparks Outrage At Her Useless Husband

There is a lot wrong with social media. This we know for sure, but sometimes social media can be a friend. Take, for example, the mom of four who recently felt like she was at her breaking point and took to Reddit to talk about her “incredible mom guilt.” She was worried that she had failed her daughter, but Reddit had her back.

“Pretty sure I traumatized my 3 year old today and I’m sobbing in bed over it,” the distraught mom wrote on the sub-Reddit forum Mommit. She went on to explain that she had taken her four children to the splash pad and was trying to get her toddler to change out of her pull-up and into her underwear. Her 3-year-old refused and suddenly, the mom was at her breaking point. “I was done. I told my husband I needed a break but he continued on getting his game ready to play on his PC. Ignoring me like usual, not getting involved. In a moment of overwhelm and rage, I left my house. My daughter was crying at the door as I left but I just couldn’t stop. I told him I was leaving and I got in the car and left.” Her husband called her 10 minutes later with her daughter screaming on FaceTime, “begging me to come back and she was sorry she didn’t take her pull-up off. And to please come back now because she’d wear her panties.”

While her daughter “went to bed happy” that night, this mom is really beating herself up over the situation. “I feel so awful. I’m replaying it over and over. She was just being silly and three and using her little three year old brain. I don’t know how to begin to forgive myself.”

Reddit users saw things a little differently. Many commenters really sympathized with this mom and actually thought her husband was the issue, not her. One user wrote, “Your husband ignoring you all the time and booting up his computer for games is the problem here. The 3 year old apologized - did your husband?” Another user pointed out that he could have made life easier for everyone if he helped in the first place. “You mean.. weaponizing the three year old because he didn’t want to deal with the problem, or acknowledge his hand in it? How would the night have gone if he got off his ass and helped immediately?”

Indeed, almost all of the comments were in absolute support of this tired mom and venting their frustration with this disengaged dad. “This is how things were with my ex a lot of the time. Amongst other abuse directed at us. I eventually left and things are so much easier. I find it less mentally damaging to know that all problems are mine to solve for the 2 of us, rather than hoping he would pick up some duties alongside dumping some extra ones on me too. The mental load is less. Far less. I’ve been there. You’re upset about this because you’re a good parent, a shitty parent would just think ‘oh, I’ll threaten it in future because it made her follow orders,’” wrote another sympathetic Redditor.

Sadly, this situation is not that uncommon in the Reddit community. Like the dad who told his wife she’s not a stay-at-home mom because their daughter goes to school. Or the dad who slept all morning while his wife got their family ready to go to the zoo. Or the dad who locks his bedroom door so no one can interrupt his sleep.

This is really not our favorite genre of social media discourse. Still, it’s nice to see moms supporting one another through it all.