The Conversation (0)
Elaine McCallig
Nov 27, 2021
A man left his teenage daughter stuck on a roof for two hours after she called him for help — and the reason why is possibly the pettiest thing we’ve read this week.
As his 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom window is connected to the roof, she naturally sneaks up there to hang out sometimes. He told her not to “a million times”, and when she went up again and got stuck, he didn’t immediately rush home to help her back down.
The 34-year-old dad took to Reddit’s Am I the A**hole subreddit to seek second opinions on whether or not he was too harsh on his daughter.
He explained that, as he and her mom are split, he has his daughter twice a week and every other weekend.
As the roof outside her window is flat, she and her friends sometimes bring blankets and food to the roof to sit and chat.
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The Redditor said although it’s not hugely unsafe as it’s not “particularly high up”, he always urges her not to go up on the roof by herself as getting back in through the window can be tricky. The ledge is about 4ft from the roof, making it difficult for the 5ft teen to get back in by herself without standing on something.
Last weekend he got a call from his daughter saying she had got stuck on the roof and she needed him to come home immediately and help her.
However, he told her he would be home “soon” and said that, as he had told her “a million times” not to go up by herself, “she can figure out how to get back in herself”.
When he eventually got home two hours later his daughter called her mom who was “absolutely furious”.
He said: “It was cold but our daughter was fine and I told her mom that if our daughter had listened to me about not going out there, it wouldn’t have happened.
“Our daughter is fine and I wasn’t gone that long, but her mom and even my girlfriend are saying that I put my need to prove a point above my daughter’s wellbeing.”
The top comment with almost 15,000 reads: “LOL. I’m sorry I’m laughing at the expense of your daughter. When I was 16, I used to do the same thing at my parents/ house.
“They always told me to stop. So I got stuck and they were HOME! Instead of helping me right away, they went outside and took pictures of me stuck on the roof!
“There is still a framed photo of me on the roof that my mother has on her desk. LOL.”
They added that they don’t believe the Redditor is “the a**hole” in this situation as she wasn’t in any danger and he did come home and help her in the end.
However, another commenter asked what the weather was like.
The Redditor said it was around -8 degrees Celsius, but she was wearing two coats “and is used to colder temperatures”. A commenter fired back saying: “YTA [you’re the a**hole]. That’s too cold. Since you weren’t physically there who had no way of knowing if what she was wearing was truly sufficiently warm.”
Another said: “You left your daughter outside in -8 degrees for over two hours? Of course YTA. Give her a punishment, point out ‘I told you so’, but you don’t withhold help to prove a point. What was she wearing? Could she have got hypothermia? Did you even ask her? This was totally inappropriate of you.”
What do you think?