Furious Dad Says Wife’s New Partner Made a Huge Mistake While Caring for Their Uncircumcised Baby

Better buckle up, 'cause this is one of those stories that'll leave you with your jaw wide open (and your legs crossed in pain). According to one dad on Reddit, he's been going through a nasty breakup with his wife, who recently left him for another woman. The pandemic has left them with an interesting new custody arrangement, which has been awkward, to say the least. But the worst of it came just a few days ago, when his 1-year-old son returned to his home with an injury that upset him — and an explanation for it that shocked him even more.

According to the anonymous dad's post, he and his wife separated about five months ago, after she cheated on him and moved in with another woman.

The affair "led her to discover she wasn't straight but lesbian," the dad explained. Now, she's living with her new 23-year-old girlfriend, who the dad described as "ditzy and irresponsible and avoids taking responsibility."

(Admittedly, not a great combo.)

For the last few months, their son has been staying with his wife and her new girlfriend, due to the quarantine.

But now that summer is approaching and life in at least some states are starting to return to a new normal, he asked her to return their son to him for some visitation time. After all, he explained, "we are NOT divorced and as such we have no official custody agreement."

"Honestly my hope was that my wife would realize she missed me and our marriage and would come home but now I am preparing to finally let go," the dad continued.

But as soon as he went to change his son's diaper, he immediately noticed something was wrong.

The 1-year-old's penis was "very infected and swollen and abnormal looking," he shared. Which is why he immediately called his wife for an explanation.

But the answer he got was ... well, far from what he expected.

"She confessed that a few days earlier, her girlfriend volunteered to give him a bath because my wife was really tired after a long day's work (she is a substitute teacher and works night shifts in a warehouse)," he shared in his post. "Wife's girlfriend has never cared for a child before let alone a boy let alone an uncircumcised boy, so she had no idea what the protocol was."

"Apparently she Googled how to clean under foreskin and stupidly read to pull it back and wash it with soap and water," he continued.

"Well that's what an adult might do, but baby boys have their foreskin attaches to the glans," he went on. "During or after puberty, the boy should be the first one to pull it back as part of exploration."

But that wasn't all she did.

She also "scrubbed it really hard because she thought it was so dirty it stuck together."

OH. MY. GAWDDDDDD.

"Again this woman is an IDIOT," the dad added. (Though honestly, that seems to go without saying at this point.)

Ever since, his wife has been trying to treat it with Vaseline and Neosporin, but hasn't taken the boy to the doctor — which the dad was understandably pissed about.

So, he rushed him to urgent care, where a doctor said the boy had developed an "infectious growth" and prescribed antibiotics.

Now, the dad is pissed (understandably so) — and not just at his wife's girlfriend, but also at his wife.

"I am so angry that my wife let this happen," he wrote. "She basically agreed to let her [girlfriend] who has zero child care experience bathe my son which led to his current serious injury."

And now, he's got a major ax to grind.

"What I'm wondering is would I be justified in keeping my son indefinitely while I begin working with my lawyer to draft a divorce agreement?" he asked. "I also don't want this woman [the girlfriend] ANYWHERE near my son whatsoever even if she gets partial custody. And would be I be a jerk if I used this incident as evidence of negligence? I recorded the whole conversation where she admitted to me what happened (and yes it's legal to do so where I live).

Oof.

Redditors had a lot of feelings about this one ... with some even having a bit of empathy for the girlfriend.

"Not an idiot; just ignorant," one person wrote.

"Yeah, looks like she had the best intentions," another person added. "If she Googled how to bathe a baby properly, that shows that she cared enough for the baby that she wanted to do it correctly. I think the blame here is to be put on the mother who did not take the baby to the doctor after seeing it was infected."

A few people even admitted that they might have made the same mistake, too.

"I wasn't taught that I shouldn't retract my kiddo's foreskin at the hospital," one person wrote. "I'll be honest that I didn't think to do it — thankfully, but my little ones pediatrician was the first one who told me that I shouldn't do it."

"As a grown man myself, I had no idea about uncircumcised babies either until this post," someone else wrote. "And Vaseline is what parents of circumcised newborns apply for the first couple weeks, so it's not a completely asinine idea to do the same in this situation if you don't know the difference."

Others felt the real person to blame here was the wife.

"The GF was trying to do good, but the wife knew something bad had happened and didn't take steps to try to fix it," one person said.

"Yes, and the wife knew something was wrong, but she protected her girlfriend's feelings instead of treating him how he needed to be treated," someone else chimed in. "Which means she cares mode about her girlfriend's opinion or attitude than her own son's health."

"Your wife allowed her to bathe him and then denied him medical care. It's your wife's judgment that is the biggest threat here," another person wrote.

But in follow-up comments, it seems the man really is fixated on hating his wife's new girlfriend.

"It's really her GF I have the biggest problem with," he wrote in a later comment. "I'm still mad at my wife but the GF isn't a parent and IMO has no 'right' to bathe him or perform any other child care."

After all, he continued, "the GF googled on her cell phone instead of asking my wife. Wife didn't find out until after GF did it. She didn't wanna wake wife up from a nap so she pretended to know what she was doing instead of asking."

This, he insisted, was irresponsible. And ultimately, his son paid the price.

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