Kids are always getting into accidents.
They love adventure, which can be dangerous when unsupervised.
So what do parents do when accidents happen, and they don’t seem that serious?
Do you run straight to a doctor?
With the price of healthcare these days, people may feel pressured to make different choices.
Is that the right choice, though?
In the old days, people say they would just “shake it all off.”
But what about today?
Case in point…
Redditor throw_awayaccount60 wanted to discuss his experience and get some feedback. So naturally, he came to visit the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.
He asked:
“AITA for refusing to take my son to the ER?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“I (61 M[ale]) recently took two of my sons (9) – (11) on a trip to my sister’s house out of state.”
“We were gone for a week.”
“My wife (43) stayed home with my daughters (16) – (17).”
“3 days before me and my sons headed home, my youngest (let’s call him K) got to ride on my brother-in-law’s (calling him R) four-wheeler.”
“He had his own helmet we brought from home, and we let him explore the 10 acres they had.”
“Me and R headed inside to watch TV.”
“About 10 minutes later, R mentions he doesn’t hear the four-wheeler anymore.”
“So we both headed outside only to hear my son screaming.”
“We both started to run toward the screams, but I turned around and got R’s truck.”
“We found him at the back half of their property.”
“When I got to them, R had already lifted the four-wheeler off of my son’s leg, and he refused to walk on it.”
“I denied taking him to the hospital because my sister was a nurse and would be able to tell if it was broken or not when she got home in a few hours.”
“Another reason I didn’t take him to the hospital also has to do with the fact my oldest daughter (17) recently was in the ER with a sprained ankle, and we found out we didn’t have insurance.”
“I figured just waiting for my sister would be fine, and if I needed to, I would take him to the hospital.”
“I also pushed back our leaving date a day to hang out more with my sister.”
“Our boys spoke to their mother that night, and she got mad at me for not taking him to the hospital, saying there could have been other issues I couldn’t see.”
“We are home now, and our son is walking perfectly fine, but my wife is still upset I never took him to the hospital.”
“So am I the a**hole here?”
Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed some options to the question AITA:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Many Redditors declared OP WAS the A**hole.
“YTA. I was going to mention being medically neglectful, but honestly, I don’t think it needs that qualifier.”
“You let a 9-year-old take off on 10 acres and didn’t get him medical attention when the obvious happened.”
“Fine or not, I get why your wife is mad.”
“She probably questions whether she can trust you with the kids.” ~ squidshj
“You don’t ‘wait and see’ when it comes to a child’s health.”
“You find your kid’s leg underneath an ATV. You take the kid for x-rays.”
“OP was seriously irresponsible.”
“Both in not getting his insurance situation fixed after the incident with his daughter and in refusing aid for his son because he was worried about paying the hospital fees that would have been covered had he not let his insurance lapse in the first place.” ~ ScifiGirl1986
“Not even medically neglectful but just downright neglectful! 4 wheelers are notoriously dangerous because of their propensity for flipping, and leaving a 9-year-old to their own devices was a time bomb of danger.”
“OP’s son could have easily been impaled under a water source and drowned as he sat watching tv- only the in-law was noticing the sound of the machine stopping.”
“Also, WHY EVEN put your son in harm’s way by allowing this activity knowing your family was medically uninsured?!”
“YTA, I’d be pissed if I was your wife, or your son, in this situation.”
“Just completely boneheaded and dimwitted on OP’s part and that poor child, being left in pain due to their father’s short-sightedness and utter disregard for safety.” ~ Which_Translator_548
“There is no legal or moral option for simply saying ‘No thank you!’ for your kid’s medical care.”
“Not getting insurance from the marketplace is making a gamble that the price of out-of-pocket medical care will be less than the monthly prices for a plan.”
“You can’t just ‘opt-out’ of having to do any medical care for your kids.”
“If you have the money to take a week-long vacation to your brother’s house and bring your own helmets to go ATV-ing, then you can pay for a family marketplace health insurance plan.” ~ odubik
“Seriously! I got to ‘R and I went inside to watch tv’ and had to reread that I hadn’t missed the initialing of the other son.”
“One of those two should have at least been outside monitoring this stupidity, but nah, let’s just hope we hear the running of the 4-wheeler.”
“But that seems suspect because even if they have super good hearing, 10 acres is definitely plenty of room for that thing to go and likely not be heard.”
“It was TA from that point and then plummeted further and further into insanity from there.” ~ SruthanArCu
“Not only that.”
“My mum was an ex-nurse.”
“When I was 6 I broke my arm.”
“She and my nan checked my arm, confidently said it wasn’t broken so I could wiggle my fingers, and refused to take me to the hospital.”
“It’s only because I b*tched for literally 5 hours she finally took me, got me x rayed confidently huffing about how useless it was.”
“Just to be told I had, in fact, broken my arm.”
“In her defense, she was EXCEEDINGLY apologetic after that and worked hard to not repeat the mistake.” ~ ThatFatGuyMJL
“He didn’t want to take him to the hospital because he didn’t want to tell the medical staff that he wasn’t out supervising a nine-year-old on a four-wheeler and have them involve C[hild] P[rotective] S[ervices].”
“He stayed an extra day at his relative’s house so he wouldn’t have to face his wife.”
“He’s not just YTA. He’s a coward and a bad parent.”
“And I bet this isn’t the first time.” ~ UnicornBoned
“This is just what I was about to say.”
“And I am sure sister really appreciated that responsibility also.”
“I’m an R[egistered] N[urse] and the amount of times people have contacted me for help/advice when they should have gone to the hospital is ridiculous.”
“My standard reply is to go to the doctor/hospital.”
“Nurses are under enough pressure at work.”
“We don’t want to incorrectly diagnose something (which we shouldn’t do anyway) and have that on our conscience.” ~ Sheilatried
“Jesus YTA.”
“This isn’t ‘my boy tripped and his ankle is a tad swollen’ this is ‘a 4 wheeler crashed and ended up on top of my kid’ that should be ‘get them the f**k to the ER’ territory.”
“He could’ve had internal bleeding, among a million other things wrong that a few hours wait could’ve made deadly.”
“Which do you prefer, risking money, or your kid’s life?” ~ P-Two
“Monumentally bad parenting decisions, and you decide to post about it on Reddit.”
“Throw in an 18-year age gap between you and your wife and the fact that you had a child at 50?”
“I am 100% sure this never actually happened.”
“But let’s examine this from a different view.”
“You’re at work.”
“A heavy piece of equipment falls on your leg.”
“It is bleeding, hurts and you can’t stand on it.”
“Your boss says ‘Oh, just hang out and wait, the nurse can come look at it in a few hours.'”
“Would you be fine with that approach? YTA.” ~ mdthomas
“YTA. Why is one of the reasons you won’t take your kids to get medical attention because YOU dropped the ball with insurance big time.”
“If your kid suffering for potentially hours is something your okay with when you could take them to get help I don’t know why you had kids in the first place.” ~ SnowGlowss
“YTA. There could have been other issues, and there is definitely some poor judgment being exercised.”
“At the same time, it’s a sad reality that in the United States–one of the wealthiest countries in the world–a visit to the emergency room can bankrupt a family.” ~ GopherDog22
“My older sister fell down a hill and hurt her leg.”
“We had to call an ambulance for her.”
“Paramedics came and put her in the ambulance.”
“One of the paramedics was my godfather, and he literally told my mother that my sister was faking it.”
“They had to put bars into her ankle, and she has had two operations since.”
“People aren’t X-ray machines. Your sister can’t know if it’s broken or not without an X-ray.”
“Of course YTA.” ~ Ashamed_Pumpkin3
“YTA. You don’t have insurance, so you didn’t want to have to pay for your son to be seen at the ER in case it was nothing.”
“Your first thought was finances.”
“I thought I had a broken leg and was taken to the ER.”
“They saw me within 15 minutes because the hospital staff determined it was an emergency.”
“Turns out it wasn’t broken, but the hospital determined it was an emergency.”
“The keywords are ‘the hospital determined it was an emergency’ when they weren’t sure until after I got an x-ray done.”
“So somehow your son didn’t get the same urgency from you, the father.”
“YTA… also because it seems like the world revolves around you.”
“Extend the trip.”
“Don’t take the kid to the hospital because you don’t have insurance and because you decided, with no medical training, it can wait for your nurse sister to return hours later.” ~ archetyping101
Well, OP, Reddit is not happy with your actions.
They seem to be siding with your wife.
The aftermaths of accidents are dangerous to play around with.
Maybe next time just bite the insurance bullet.
Better safe than sorry.