Imagine being a single parent with two kids, one who is in high school and one who is in elementary school. If you had to work overtime and couldn’t pick up your elementary aged kid from school, would you expect your teen to drop everything to pick her up, or would you find another solution?

In this story, one dad is in this situation, and he expected his teenage son to drop everything and pick up his little sister.

Keep reading to see what happens when the son doesn’t like this idea.

AITA for interrupting my son’s date so he could pick up his little sister?

I’m a single father (43M) to two children, Max (17M) and Liza (8F).

I usually have Liza in after school clubs so that I’m able to pick her up after work, however last evening I was given some work that had me working overtime.

I did try my best to negotiate out of it but my manager told me that the assignment was to be completed by that night so I just did.

He called his son.

It was nearing towards 6pm and I just knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to Liza so I called Max and asked him to pick her up.

He responded by saying that he couldn’t because he was on a date with his gf for their 6 month anniversary.

I told him that I understood but that I really needed him to get Liza and that I’d make it up to him for interrupting.

He just angrily turned off the phone and I thought that while he was mad he had just decided to pick her up.

Liza had to get home another way.

30 minutes later I receive a call from Liza’s school on where I was because the school was close to closing down and no one was there.

Luckily one of Liza’s friend’s mother said they’d drop her off and that was all good.

However I don’t really like it when Liza goes with that particular friend, not because of the friend but because of the mother.

She has this habit of asking maths questions in the car that she knows Liza is unable to answer and then criticises her over it. It’s all just very mean.

He’s wondering if he was too harsh on Max.

I called Max and asked him where he was and that he was in big trouble when he got home.

He just told me that he was busy and to leave him “the hell alone”.

He came home at around 9pm. I told him he was grounded and that he was not allowed to use the car for a good three weeks.

At that he got all mad and said that it wasn’t his fault I was failing as a parent and unable to afford someone to collect Liza.

Just want some insight on this situation. Was I being to harsh and AITA for interrupting his date?

I don’t think he should punish Max for not leaving his date to pick up his sister. It would’ve been nice if Max had helped out, but he was also trying to be a good boyfriend.

This dad needs to come up with another backup plan for nights he has to work late.

Let’s see what Reddit thinks of this story.

This person thinks Max needed to step up.

It’s time for a family meeting to make the expectations clear.

This person understands both father and son’s perspectives.

But this person points the blame at the dad’s employer.

Working overtime when you’re a single parent gets complicated.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.