A furious mum has sparked a huge debate after revealing her husband went to work without taking their seven-year-old son to school, because she didn’t remind him he was on school drop-off duty.

It resulted in the young boy being left alone at home for hours, until the school contacted his mum noting his absence.

The mum explained that for the past three years she has worked in the office every Friday, which means she leaves the house at 6am, before anyone else is awake. Over the past three years her husband has always taken their sone to school, which starts at 8.30am.

“My husband lost his job a few months ago and recently found a part-time job waiting tables at a cafe, because of this, his schedule varies. Today (Friday), he’s working 9-5,” she explained.

“He got ready for work and noticed our son was awake and watching TV. Husband asked our son if I had gone out to get coffee, son said ‘yes’ (not sure why, again, I leave before I see or speak to anyone), so my husband took that as fact and just left and went to work.”

‘When were you going to tell me I had to take him to school?!’

The mum says by the time she got an automated call from the school stating her son had been marked absent, the seven-year-old had been home alone for almost three hours.

“I called the school to verify that our son was there (but possibly late, because that isn’t unusual for my husband, unfortunately), and to my horror; he was NOT at school.

“I called my husband as I was (literally) running out of my office, in a ditch effort, hoping they stayed home together (maybe son was sick?) but nope!

“My husband’s response: ‘When were you going to tell me I had to take him to school? How was I supposed to do that when I have work at 9?’

“My response: “And how am I supposed to take him to school at 8:30 when I have work at 7? Why would you assume I hadn’t gone to work when this has been my schedule for years now? And as the last adult to leave the house, once you noticed I wasn’t here, you should have called me to verify instead of taking the word of our 7yo son that I had gone to get coffee!'”

The Blame Game

She says her husband doesn’t agree and is adamant his wife is at fault.

“I admit – sure – I could have verified with him last night since my husband now has a shifting schedule. But since I have to leave for work hours before our son even has to be at school, I don’t see why that would fall on me.

“And I still maintain that as the last adult to leave the house, upon noticing I was gone, responsibility fell on my husband to verify before leaving a 7yo child home by themselves. All it would have taken was a text or phone call to make sure I was, in fact, taking our son to school. But instead, son was left home alone for 3 hours.

“Unfortunately, my son was very distressed when I got home, crying and panicked, and even he wailed “Dad just left me!” (as he is also fully aware I am never home on Fridays). It took me some time to calm him down.”

The mum took to an internet forum asking whether she was actually in the wrong, and overwhelmingly she found support.

Feature Image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash