Sometimes you do something nice, but it’s not well received.

This can leave you wondering if what you did was, in fact, not nice at all.

A mother shared her story hoping to gain some clarity about whether she was in the wrong.

Let’s check out the details!

AITA for spending time with a random kid in the hospital?

My daughter is in the hospital due to organ failure from an eating disorder.

I am fortunate enough to be able to stay in the hospital with her.

There is a girl, Mila (15) in the room next to her with an intestinal disorder. She’s been here for about 3 weeks now.

She always leaves her door open so she can talk to anyone hanging out by her room.

I decided to start talking to her because I’d never seen her with a visitor and she’s really a sweet kid.

This is her 6th hospital stay since she got diagnosed around thanksgiving because her meds keep failing.

The hospital is 2 hours away from her house and she’s one of 5 kids so her mom isn’t able to come more than once or twice a week and her dad hasn’t visited at all.

Her “mom instincts” kicked in, and she felt she could (and should) help somehow.

Over the next few days she’d call me into her room when she’d see me waiting in the hall and I just started going to her room when I couldn’t be with my daughter.

We talk, play cards/board games, and I run some small errands for her, like picking up her target order, washing her clothes, getting snacks, etc.

But this wouldn’t last long.

Yesterday I was playing cards with her when her mom showed up. Mila introduced me to her and her mom asked why I was in her kid’s room.

I explained that my daughter is the room next door and whenever she needs some space, I spend time with Mila since she spends so much of her time alone.

This remark was not well received.

Well, Mila’s mom was very upset with the nurses for letting some random woman in her kid’s room and with me for “criticizing her parenting” (all I said is that she spends a lot of time alone in her room).

Apparently Mila is autistic and that meant she wasn’t capable of inviting me into her room (I had no clue she was autistic) and that me going in there makes me a predator.

Ouch.

I told my husband about this and he agrees that she’s overreacting but he thinks I shouldn’t be in a random kid’s room.

AITA?

There isn’t a black-or-white answer for this situation.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say.

One commenter had a few questions and observations.

This user tried to imagine what Mila’s mom was feeling.

This commenter makes suggestions and offers some kind words.

Another user just can’t believe this even happened.

One user has an unpopular opinion…

Another user shares a similar opinion.

A parent of an autistic child chimes in.

This mom had good intentions, but maybe her approach was a bit naive?

Which is honestly too bad.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.