Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He “Failed As A Parent”

Recently, a 43-year-old single dad turned to the AITA community on Reddit for a moral judgement.

In a post that amassed 15.7k upvotes and 3.7k comments, the dad explained that he usually picks up his 8-year-old daughter Lisa after school clubs, but one day, he had to stay late at work.

“I did try my best to negotiate out of it but my manager told me that the assignment was to be completed by that night so I just did,” the dad explained.

The only way to collect Lisa was to ask his teen son, who, it turned out, had a very different evening plan.

A single dad wonders if he was wrong to interrupt his teen son’s date so he could pick up his little sister, after the dad got stuck late at work

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He "Failed As A Parent"
Image credits: stokkete (not the actual photo)

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He "Failed As A Parent"

Image credits: Budgeron Bach (not the actual photo)

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He "Failed As A Parent"

Image credits: helplesssdad2785

Being a single parent is not easy, there’s no doubt about it. But according to the data from the Pew Research Center, a whopping one-quarter of kids in the U.S. live with a single parent, which is the highest rate in the world.

Moreover, according to a recent report from LendingTree, there are over 1.5 million single dads in the U.S. — a number that’s anything but insignificant. This translates to more than 1.5 million single fathers.
As you may suspect, the number of single-mother families is much higher with more than 6.3 million or 19.1% of parent-child families.

The same report suggests that the average income for single-father families is $67,405 — a third less than the average for all families where parents raise their children ($101,536). Even so, it’s significantly higher than the average income among single-mother families ($40,500).

However, a growing body of studies reveal that children are better off raised by a single parent as opposed to living with married parents who conflict a lot. It’s also important to note that despite the initial challenges, children raised by one divorced parent sometimes have better outcomes than children raised by a parent who is remarried.

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He "Failed As A Parent"

Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto (not the actual photo)

The dad later shared more information in response to these comments

Many people expressed their support for the author

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He "Failed As A Parent"

Others thought that his boss was a jerk

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He "Failed As A Parent"

Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus.

Read less »

I'm a visual editor here at Bored Panda and I enjoy a good laugh. My work ranges from serious topics related to toxic work environments and relationship difficulties to humorous articles about online shopping fails and introvert memes. When I'm not at my work desk, checking if every single pixel is in the right place, I usually spend my free time playing board games, taking pictures, and watching documentaries

Read less »

What do you think ?

POST

Casey McAlister 1 year ago

The boss is the a*****e. You can't just assign tasks to your employees in the evening and expect them to stay overtime with no prior notice. People have lives beyond their jobs.

35points

Bina Wei 1 year ago (edited)

I agree that the Boss is the real ahole here. The boss could have allowed OP to pick up his kid and then OP could have continued working. There was no compromise at all.. Edit: Typo.

8points

Load More Replies...

Mathias 1 year ago (edited)

Depends on your position in the company and the company itself. In a big corporation yes, the simple employee work their time and when time is up they go home. It's the responsibility of the management to plan accordingly. However if you are the teamleader then you are required to suck it up and get the job done it's part of your job description. Also in small companies things run different, a urgent well paying job can be vital to keep the company up. Then you stick together and get compensated for in calm times. Small businesses can run just like the family, you stick together in bad times and get compensated for it in good times. Especially if there is fully capable 17 year old available who can take on some responsibility. However this reads like it could be the father is working too much to provide for his kids while they lack his presence and miss time with him, and then that's how kids show their parents their disappointment. Either way, there is some lessen to learn for somebody.

-2points

Aziz Zouaoui 1 year ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

censorshipsucks 1 year ago

I had my gf s**t on me for fetching my kids... she's not a teenager. She's in her 30s. Some people do not understand the relative roles of family, kids, and partners, and which responsibility comes first.

29points

Caro Caro 1 year ago

Kids always come first. You are great :)

13points

Load More Replies...

Greennovator 1 year ago

For your sake, I hope that she's an EX girlfriend?

7points

Jake VanWagoner 1 year ago

Hoping you dumped the gf immediately.

1point

ToGo 1 year ago

Thank goodness! I was preparing for all the "YTA", which would be dead wrong. This man is a single parent. He has asked his son for help in a jam 3 times in 18 months. The son is being a selfish teenager and I hope he grows out of it. I understand that he's 17 and is starting to have his own life but his priorities are terrible. Man, I'd have been so grateful to get use of a car that I'd be happy to run errands as a thanks. I'd have also felt really horrible knowing my young sibling was being left alone with nowhere to go, but that's me. Dad needs to try have a talk with son and son needs a reality check.

18points

Jake VanWagoner 1 year ago

After the third time I'd say the teen shouldn't lose the car for 3 weeks. I'd say "nope lol I'm selling the car. You've got a chance to buy it but I'm not loaning you the money." The kid is *borrowing* the car and the condition is that he uses it to help out when asked.

1point

Load More Replies...

Load More Comments

POST

Casey McAlister 1 year ago

The boss is the a*****e. You can't just assign tasks to your employees in the evening and expect them to stay overtime with no prior notice. People have lives beyond their jobs.

35points

Bina Wei 1 year ago (edited)

I agree that the Boss is the real ahole here. The boss could have allowed OP to pick up his kid and then OP could have continued working. There was no compromise at all.. Edit: Typo.

8points

Load More Replies...

Mathias 1 year ago (edited)

-2points

Aziz Zouaoui 1 year ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

censorshipsucks 1 year ago

29points

Caro Caro 1 year ago

Kids always come first. You are great :)

13points

Load More Replies...

Greennovator 1 year ago

For your sake, I hope that she's an EX girlfriend?

7points

Jake VanWagoner 1 year ago

Hoping you dumped the gf immediately.

1point

ToGo 1 year ago

18points

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He “Failed As A Parent”

A single dad wonders if he was wrong to interrupt his teen son’s date so he could pick up his little sister, after the dad got stuck late at work

The dad later shared more information in response to these comments

Many people expressed their support for the author

Others thought that his boss was a jerk

Games

Liucija Adomaite

Liucija Adomaite

Viktorija Ošikaitė

Viktorija Ošikaitė

Teen Gets Mad At His Dad For Interrupting His Date To Ask Him To Pick Up His Little Sister, Says He “Failed As A Parent”

A single dad wonders if he was wrong to interrupt his teen son’s date so he could pick up his little sister, after the dad got stuck late at work

Share iconThe dad later shared more information in response to these comments

Share icon

Many people expressed their support for the author

Others thought that his boss was a jerk

Games

Liucija Adomaite

Liucija Adomaite

Viktorija Ošikaitė

Viktorija Ošikaitė

The dad later shared more information in response to these comments