A father reflects on a tense Christmas trip gone wrong when his soon-to-be ex-wife slipped on an icy porch and cut her hand.

Caught between legal drama, icy steps, and a friend who refused to help, he refused to personally take her to the ER.

What followed was blood, frustration, and a lesson in hindsight.

Here are the details.

AITA for refusing to take my ex-wife to the ER?

This incident occurred a decade ago, but recently came up in conversation with my oldest son, who was 7 at the time.

While I believed I was justified in the moment, over the years I have come to the conclusion that I am not proud of my actions that day.

My son maintains that I did the right thing.

Let’s get into it!

Six months prior to the incident, my wife and I had agreed to divorce after her extra-marital activities came to light.

We agreed on everything except who would keep the house. I told her that unless she took over the mortgage and utilities that I would not be leaving.

Two months prior, when it was evident that I was staying put, she made a play to remove me from the home, and had me served with a 2-week TRO.

Oh geez.

Caught off guard, I rented a room with a coworker in the neighborhood and hired a lawyer. I followed all the rules, went to court, answered all of the judge’s questions, and the TRO was revoked.

After 3 weeks I was back in my house and she was angrier than ever. I’m including this background only because it explains my combative state of mind during the event.

Two weeks prior, I took my kids out of state to visit family for Christmas and New Years.

I asked Amy, my soon-to-be-ex-wife to shovel the walk and porch stairs while we were away. She didn’t, and upon our return there was 2 inches of ice on the stairs and sidewalk.

Safety hazard alert.

The day after we returned, Amy had arranged to meet up with a craigslister to buy a piece of furniture for the house she had rented. She was going with her friend Lisa, who had also set up a CL purchase of her own.

When Lisa pulled into the driveway, Amy hurriedly ran out the door, slipped on the icy porch steps, and landed on a ceramic planter, cutting her hand open.

It wasn’t a life or death situation, but there was blood and she did need stitches.

Serves her right? Maybe?

She came back in, freaking out. I told her to go wrap it up and have Lisa take her to the ER. Meanwhile, Lisa had come up to the door to see what the commotion was about.

I told Lisa that she needed to take Amy to the ER. Lisa said she wasn’t going to blow off her CL meetup, and that I should take her.

I said that ER visits weren’t part of my role any more. Lisa accused me of acting abusively. I sarcastically asked her why she would want to leave her friend dependent on her abuser.

HA.

Ultimately, Lisa left for her meetup, and I packed up the kids and dropped off Amy at the ER. I let her find her own way home.

If you had asked me the next day, I would have said I acted righteously and that Lisa should have stepped up for her friend. With the clarity of time, I feel that I should have swallowed my pride and better demonstrated for my kids how a father should act.

Lay it on me.

In the moment, he felt justified—but years later, he’s questioning if pride got in the way. Reddit debated if he was right or just being petty…

This person says NTA at all.

This person said he actually set a perfect example, even if he didn’t mean to.

And this person says it was absolutely the ex’s fault.

Sometimes the shortest route to stitches is the longest road to regret.

But there weren’t really any winners here.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.