This dad thought he was following the usual school-morning routine: text the 14-year-old, knock if he doesn’t reply, leave the house at 8:20.

But thanks to post–daylight savings confusion and an early internal clock, he accidentally woke his son a full hour early.

He apologized immediately…but an hour later, his son demanded to know why it happened and accused him of “making excuses” when he explained he was groggy and forgot about the time change.

The conversation spiraled, and the kid left the car upset.

AITA for making excuses to my son

I send my son (14) to school everyday, and we have a system going where since school starts 8:30, and we need to leave the house 8:20.

I’ll text him 20-25 minutes ahead of time, and I’ll go knock on his door and poke my head in to wake him up, if he hasn’t replied. This was all agreed on and a working system for years now.

This morning, I got up an hour earlier (since daylight saving time has reverted to standard time), and just biologically felt like it was the right time, because the daylight outside the window felt right.

And in the moment I completely forgot the hour being wrong, and texted him at 6:55, and when he didn’t respond, I went at 7 to wake him.

Uh oh.

Of course, when he woke and asked me why I’m an hour early, I realized what I had done, and so I apologized and left.

Then, an hour later, as I was sending him to school, my son asked me, “why were you an hour early today? Daylight saving time changed yesterday you know?”

And so I answered something like “hey sorry buddy, I totally messed up. I got up earlier due to the time change, and it just ‘felt right’ and so I went through the motions of our morning routine. My brain must have not been woken up yet from being groggy in the morning”.

Then he got upset and told me that I’m just making up excuses.

Wha?

That I had 5 minutes between texting and waking him and that it’s absurd that after a day of time change, to blame it on brain being groggy.

And that I should own up to my own mistake instead of making excuses.

And also that since I sent the text and woke him at those specific times I must have looked at the clock, and should have noticed the hour.

Well, GEE.

I was like, I have taken full responsibility the entire time – I apologized at the time I woke you accidentally, and when you asked me why, the first thing I did was apologize too. I know full well it’s my mistake entirely, and I claim responsibility.

I’m just telling you that it happened probably because my brain hadn’t woken up fully, and I just went with what “felt right”.

He then pointed out that I’m still making excuses, and that I should just admit fault. And I told him I already do fully admit fault!

Like, how many times do I have to say this is entirely my mistake?

Repetitive, much?

At this time we’ve reached his school, and he left without even saying bye (which we always say to each other, unless he’s upset with something).

My question for you is if what I said really sounded like making excuses, and that IATA for it.

I feel like I should be able to both own a mistake and talk about what led up to it. But maybe the delivery was terrible?

Most readers felt the dad wasn’t wrong for explaining what happened.

He apologized, took responsibility, and simply offered context. Sure, the son’s frustration made sense for a tired teenager, but that didn’t make the parent’s explanation an “excuse.”

This person says teens will be teens, but Dad is NTA.

This person says apologizing is all we can do, but certainly NTA.

This person agrees and is also on OP’s side.

Hard to fault a parent for one sleepy misfire, especially when the only thing he woke up early was his kid’s attitude.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.