Being a single parent is tough but one mum has hit out after another parent expected her to look after her child for free so she could enjoy some peace and quiet at a pilates class
A parent has revealed she’s being trolled by her community after she left her son’s friend at school when his mum tried to palm him off onto her to look after.
Sharing the situation on social media, the woman explained that she has two boys, Simon*, eight, and Nathan*, six. They both attend the same school and as she only works part-time, and her husband full-time, pick up and drop off for her is relatively easy.
Recently, her eldest son had become good friends with another boy, David*, and had wanted to organise a playdate. After speaking to David’s mum in person and discussing things, they made the arrangements and the afternoon went off without a hitch.
Read more: Sign up to Mirror US’s SMS updates for the latest straight from the newsroom
However, following that successful but scheduled playdate, David’s mum appeared to take advantage of the situation.
Simon’s mum shared: “The week after the playdate I was picking up my two sons from school, and my eldest had brought his friend with him.” When she asked where his mum was, David said that she had told him to go with Simon. She went on: “Obviously this was wildly irresponsible on her part so I called her but went straight to voicemail. I wasn’t going to leave this kid alone at the end of school, so after repeated attempts to contact her, I just took him with me home.
“She later contacted me around 2 hours after school finished, asked me where her kid was, and then came to collect him from my house. I asked her why the hell she had done that, and she replied that she was a single mum and couldn’t pick him up in time due to her pilates class.”
Understandably, Simon’s mum was annoyed that she had just been used for free childcare and told the other woman that she couldn’t do it again or else she would report it to the school.
She went on: “A few days later and you guess what, my eldest comes to the car with his friend. I asked him where his mum was and he told me she had instructed him to go with my son again. At this point, I got out of the car with all the kids and went to the reception to tell them about the incident and left him there.
“I got a call after school from his mum, with her swearing and berating me, calling me every name in the book, saying that I had got her in trouble with the school. We got into an argument and I hung up. After this, she made a Facebook post about me calling me out and calling me a selfish a**hole. I really don’t know what to do and really want to know if I was the a**hole.”
For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US.
Most of the people reading the Reddit post were firmly on the side of Simon’s mum and shared some options of what she should reply under the Facebook message. One person offered: “Reply on her post, she is lucky you didn’t call CPS on her, tell her friends that a Pilates class was more important than the safety of her child.”
However, someone else replied: “I totally get where you are coming from, but if you have the space at all and he is a good kid, please do it for your son’s friend and not his mother’s lack of guardianship. He’s eight and you might be a saving grace in his life. He might be feeling all sorts of things, including being neglected by his parents. Please be there for him, if you can, because you might help him have hope.”
*All names have been changed.
Do you have a story to share? Email [email protected]
