Dad Tells Mom She ‘Didn’t Do Her Job’ & That It’s Her Fault Their Son Was Bitten by a Dog

As parents, the last thing we want is some harm coming to our kids. We do our best to protect them and teach them how to move in the world carefully but not afraid. It’s a balance that’s not always easy, but it’s important to acknowledge that even the most attentive of parents can have something happen unexpectedly.

That is what happened to one family with a 3-year-old boy. The mom was with her son at a party, and he got injured. The dad knows it was an accident, but when his wife tried pointing fingers, he called her out.

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The callout didn’t sit well with his wife, and now the man is looking for advice.

In his since-deleted post to Reddit’s AITA community, the original post, or OP, explained what happened to their son and why he feels his callout to his wife was warranted.

“We have a 3 year old boy. Last Saturday my wife was invited to her sister’s for a little party (I was working),” OP began his post.

“My SIL’s house has a backyard where the barbecue was happening, and her neighbor has their own yard. There’s no gate that divides them though, just a driveway from what I remember,” he wrote.

The neighbor has a dog who was outside but secured.

“The neighbors have a dog and my wife says the dog was chained on the neighbors side,” OP wrote. “However my son went over there and tried to pet the dog.”

That’s when the accident happened. “He ended up getting bit. According to my SIL she saw just as he was about to pet the dog,” the dad explained.

“The dog was sleeping and got startled,” he continued, adding that he’s thankful nothing more serious happened.

“Thank goodness there wasn’t any serious injuries (no infections or rabies) and my son is doing better,” he wrote. “His hand is still bandaged up.”

Dad knows the dog bite was an accident, but his wife doesn’t see it the same way.

“Obviously this was an accident and I would’ve moved on from it because no one is perfect (lord knows I’ve made mistakes too),” dad admitted. “My wife however was p—ed.”

Since the accident, OP explained that his wife has mentioned several times that she wants “to get the neighbors info and report their dog being ‘hostile’ so something can be done about it.”

That is where the conflict comes in. “I told her to drop it because for one thing, the dog was tied and on the neighbor’s side of the yard and it was my son who went to him,” he wrote.

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His wife continued to point fingers at the dog and neighbors as the cause of her son’s injury.

“When she brought it up again she was more serious about wanting to do something because it’s their fault he’s hurt,” OP wrote.

“And I got really mad. I told her it’s entirely HER fault my son was even there to begin with when she should’ve been watching him,” he shared.

“It is not the neighbors nor the dog’s fault and she didn’t do her job as his parent by keeping an eye on him so he wouldn’t be w[a]ndering off in the first place.”

Ouch, right? OP explained that he knows it was an accident, but that’s not his issue.

“In my POV it was an accident but the fact that she was pointing fingers at the neighbors and wanting to cause more trouble when there doesn’t need to be bothered me a lot,” OP wrote.

“She hasn’t brought it up anymore but she is mad for what I said,” he continued. “Now it’s I’m accusing her of being a bad mother. For that I’m an a–hole apparently when she was only looking for support after what happened.”

He shared that he can’t support her taking the issue further, believing the neighbor didn’t do anything wrong.

That’s when he asked Reddit users to chime in and give opinions.

“She must feel awful about what happened,” one Redditor explained. “But she can’t go attacking others for her mistake.”

“You didn't go picking that fight and you reasonably started by treating it as a parenting accident,” wrote another commenter. “But once she tried to push it into some sort of misguided liability case or blame game you were right to shut it down.”

“It is clear that your wife feels very guilty about what happened, because she knows that had she been watching him more carefully then the accident would not have happened,” someone else wrote. “No doubt the reason she was harping on the idea of the dog or its owners being to blame was because she wanted to shake off her own feelings of guilt.”

“You probably could have gone about it a bit gentler, but you are right,” added another person. “The dog was in its own space and chained up when a stranger trespassed. Neither the dog nor the neighbour are at fault here.”

Toddlers are sneaky and fast. Thankfully, their son is OK and it was only a bite and not something worse.

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