Parenting is very difficult and scary, especially if you’re parenting a kid who’s particularly vulnerable.

It’s no surprise, then, that stories like this pop up.

AITA for asking my wife to message her cousin to remind them to be careful with our son?

I (31M) and my wife have a 2.5 year old son who has had a lot of medical issues (disabled, can’t walk yet, regular checkups, etc).

That would put anyone on their guard.

A while ago, my wife’s cousin visited us with her two kids.

The kids are very active, and during that visit one of them accidentally hurt our son.

My son usually is in the crawling position, and the daughter of the cousin tried picking him up, and stepped on his leg.

My son cried a lot, we calmed him and just briefly said to be more careful and that was the end of it.

We didn’t say or bring it up anymore, not to make a big deal out of it.

Later, they found out it was a bit more serious.

Later during a routine MRI (he has these regularly after remission), the doctors saw a small spot/bone edema on his femur, caused by an injury.

It wasn’t serious but we figured it was from that instance, but never told her cousin the extent of the injury.

Now, they’re worried about next time.

Now the cousin wants to visit again and stay overnight.

I told my wife I’m fine with it, but I asked her to send a message just reminding them to please be a bit more careful this time as they injured his leg when they were here last time.

My wife didn’t really want to, but I pushed and pressured her a bit and she sent it.

Now her cousin is making excuses and might not come, and my wife is mad at me, saying I caused drama, and I am being too protective.

Honestly, the mode of communication may have been the issue here.

In person talks always come across less passive aggressive than a text, where tone can’t really be read.

I honestly thought it’s just normal to ask this, considering our son’s situation.

AITA?

Let’s see what the comments have to say:

Cousin could just be trying to be careful…

Most found the priorities strange here.

Some had even been in the same boat.

Personally, I think topics this important and sensitive should be handled with time set aside, and with a conversation as close to in-person as possible.

Little flashes of words leave us all speculating endlessly.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.