She Spent A Week In The Hospital And Chose Not To Tell Her Parents, Who Had Stopped Answering Her Calls
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Have you ever dealt with someone who is really stubborn? It can be very frustrating when someone repeatedly ignores an issue, especially when you’ve explained your point of view multiple times.
Would you use a different method to explain your point if you had the opportunity?
In this case, a woman decided to teach her parents a lesson after they kept ignoring phone calls for hours and she felt that they didn’t understand what that entailed.
But sometimes, trying to teach someone a lesson can create a whole new problem of its own.
Now she wonders if she went too far, though.
Read the full story below.
AITA for not telling my parents I was hospitalized for a week to prove a point?
I live in another city while my parents, both in their late 50s, still live in my hometown. We actually have a really good relationship overall.
I usually fly home every Christmas, we talk often, and there’s no major family drama.
But there’s one thing about them that has driven me and everyone else in our family insane for years: they are completely careless with their phones.
They’ll leave their phones in another room all day, leave them on silent by accident, or forget to charge them so the battery dies for an entire day.
Sometimes I’ll call five or six times before someone finally answers hours later.
This is not only frustrating, but dangerous.
I’ve talked to them about it MANY times because they don’t have a landline, so their cellphones are literally the only reliable way to reach them.
Yes, I understand they come from an older generation and aren’t exactly tech-savvy. They didn’t grow up attached to phones the way younger people did.
But they’re not THAT old, and I still feel like if your cellphone is your only form of communication, you should at least keep it charged and within hearing distance.
But only talking about it didn’t help them understand.
I’ve told them things like, “What if there’s an emergency?” or “What if someone urgently needs to contact you?”
They always brush it off and act like I’m overreacting.
Last month, I got severe food poisoning and ended up hospitalized for a week.
It wasn’t life-threatening, but I was pretty miserable.
While I was in the hospital, I tried calling both of them multiple times over two days. No answer.
One phone was dead, the other apparently was left somewhere in the house. At that point I got frustrated and honestly just gave up trying.
She decided that was a good learning opportunity for them.
Now, to be fair, I could have contacted my aunt, who lives near them, and she absolutely would have told them. But after years of this same issue, I decided not to.
Part of me thought, “Maybe this is the only way they’ll finally understand why people keep their phones accessible.”
Yesterday I was talking to my mom on the phone and casually mentioned, “Oh yeah, last month I was hospitalized for food poisoning for about a week.”
She completely freaked out and got really angry that I never told them.
Then she did the big reveal.
I explained that I did try to contact them repeatedly, but they didn’t answer.
She said I still should have called my aunt because “this was an emergency.”
I admitted that I could have done that, but I intentionally didn’t because I wanted them to finally realize how irresponsible they are with their phones.
That made her even angrier. She said I “used my hospitalization to prove a point” and scared them unnecessarily.
My dad thinks we’re both being stubborn.
I honestly didn’t think it was that huge of a deal since I recovered fine and it wasn’t life-threatening, but now I’m wondering if I took the lesson too far.
AITA?
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I think she did the right thing, personally, because this could be useful for more serious situations in the future.
What did Reddit think?
A reader shares their thoughts.
True.
Something to consider.
More food for thought.
Another reader chimes in.
Yup.
She did try to reach them FOR TWO DAYS, though! They basically ignored her calls, so she decided they weren’t emergency contacts.
A week in the hospital is a very significant event. I can’t even imagine my mom not checking up on me for a whole week, especially after I tried calling her.
Her parents can’t reasonably expect to be informed of everything if they consistently make themselves impossible to contact. That’s the whole point of the lesson she tried to teach them.
They should just take the L and learn from it.
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