A dad-of-two thinks he did nothing wrong by letting his daughters walk to a nearby park on their own, and has accused his wife of being a ‘helicopter’ parent.
The 40-year-old dad says he and his 39-year-old wife both work from home the majority of the time, but do head into the office about once a week.
Because of their flexible work arrangements the couple doesn’t have daycare for their eight and seven-year-old daughters during the school holidays.
“Yesterday I was working from home and my wife needed to go into the office, the dad explained.
“We live about a kilometre from the girls’ school. They were bored yesterday afternoon and wanted to go play at the school playground but I had work to do and couldn’t take them. So I let them walk there and play by themselves. We live near a fairly busy road with a 70km/h speed limit and no crosswalks, so I walked them across that road and sent them on their way.
“We have a house mobile phone that I sent with the girls and told them to call me when they got to the playground and to call me again when they were headed back so I could meet them and we could cross the busy street together. They made it there just fine and called like I asked them to.
“About a half hour later my wife got home and wanted to know where the girls where. When I told her they were at the school playground by themselves she freaked out and immediately drove over there to make sure they were okay.
“They were fine and had made friends with a couple other kids who were playing there. My wife was quiet the rest of the night and laid into me as soon as the girls were in bed. She said it was completely irresponsible to let them walk all that way and play so far away by themselves and that I was jeopardising their safety. She thinks I’m putting them in danger. I think she’s being a helicopter parent. Am I the a**hole here?”
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