One thing that’s very important for divorced parents to figure out is child custody. When they wing it instead of following a court ordered child custody agreement, life can get a little crazy.

A recently separated mom is navigating co-parenting with her kids’ dad, who works long, rotating shifts.

He made a lot of unreasonable demands, but the last straw for her was when he got the sniffles.

Keep reading to see how she reacts to his demands.

AITA for not picking my children up from their father’s house.

Two months ago me (33F) and the father (36M) of my children split after 11 years together and two very young children.

I’ve been doing my best to keep the relationship civil and coparent well.

He has a profession which has rotating hours and very long shifts.

Going into this separation, I knew that his time to spend with our children was limited.

That makes things even more complicated.

The first time he told me he would keep them overnight, I packed their little bags with everything and anything they would need.

And, since I was going to work and it’s coincidentally, 3 minutes from his family’s house (where he is staying), I took them over in the morning, dropped them off with him and headed to work.

The very next day, was their first day in daycare, but they’re enrolled in one close to where we live (very close to my mom who will drop everything to pick them up if I can’t).

It’s about a 30 minute ride from his house to the daycare.

So he told me, since he doesn’t know how to style their hair, to come over very early the next day, do their hair, dress them up, go with him to dropoff, then go to work…

Huh?

I told him that that made no sense since I would be the one running all over the place when he could just bring them over in the morning,

I would do their hair and dress them, then we could take them to daycare (literally 5 minutes from my house) and I would go to work.

He thought about it but said ok.

Later that day I got a text saying that it was best to just not take them to their first day because it would be too much of a hassle.

I said fine, no worries I will let the teachers know they are spending the day with dad.

After work the next day, since I’m so close, I picked them up at his house then went home.

Alrighty…

Two weeks later (yesterday) was their second overnight stay. He was meant to pick them up at 7am.

I told him that something happened at work and I was needed to come in to deal with that so I needed to be at the office at 8:30am.

He then said, it’s best if you bring them, that way you make sure you won’t be late.

It made me feel a type of way, but I said sure, no problem.

He also told me, he was going to a get together (today) with his coworkers at 4pm, so he would bring the kids over by 12pm.

Ugh.

Again, I felt a type of way but said sure, it’s your only time free from work, you choose how to spend it.

At 7am, I load up my kids in the car and bring them to his house.

My bff asked me to come over after work but I declined because it’s the only time I have to be by myself.

First thing I see on my phone today is a text from him asking if I can go pick up the kids. That the youngest has the sniffles and that he was catching it too.

Oh brother.

I asked him if he was still planning to go to his get together.

He said yes but he was stopping at the pharmacy before to get allergy meds and asked again if I could pick up the kids.

I replied No.

So he said I’ll bring them over as soon as they wake up.

So, AITA?

She stood firm, insisting that he handle his own responsibilities despite being sick.

On Reddit, everyone is pretty much unanimous in their thoughts: 1. NTA, and 2. bring him to court.

This person says to start now.

This person says it loud and clear.

And this person is even louder for the people in the back.

Some lines aren’t worth crossing—even for sniffles and playdates.

 

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.