A mother has been defended online for "not wanting" to drive her husband to the emergency room (ER) just a week after she was sick and he rebuffed her request for help with their baby.
The 24-year-old woman and original poster (OP), user Fit_Weather8407, explained on Reddit how, at around 2:30 a.m. one late night, her 26-year-old husband was dealing with a 104-degrees Fahrenheit (40-degrees Celsius) fever and told her that he wanted to take a trip to the ER.
However, according to the OP's post, she suggested that he try to take some medication -- and utilize other strategies to attempt to get the fever down, since he, "Hadn't taken any measures", to do so -- first.
At that point, though, her husband floated the idea of just going by himself, then apparently got offended shortly after when the OP didn't "argue" and insist on accompanying him.
But the OP was taking their child into consideration, she shared.
"If it were just him and I, I would've totally said, 'Yes, let's go'," she wrote in her Jan. 22 post, which has since accumulated 3,000 upvotes and more than 1,500 responses.
"But we have a 6-month-old baby that goes to daycare at 7am and I felt terrible waking him up to go to a hospital.
"My husband said I was, 'Showing my true colors', by not wanting to take him. He's been sick for a couple of days and I've been catering to his every need. When I was sick last week and asked for help with the baby he said, 'When you're a parent, you don't get to be sick.'
"Honestly, I think this is karma."
Still, the OP appealed for outside verdicts online on if she was in the wrong here. Many of the Redditors who weighed in clearly didn't think that was the case.
One user reassured: "If he had tried to treat the fever and it was still at 104 [degrees F], I'd call the ER... and ask about next recommended steps.
"But with a 6-month [old-baby] at home and a husband who just last week said, 'When you're a parent, you don't get to be sick', you're [not in the wrong]."
A second admitted they were ambivalent at first, "But then when getting to [how] they have an infant, I was like [not wrong]. But that line he said about not being able to be sick when you're a parent? I wouldn't even grab the bottle of Tylenol for his a**."
A fellow supporter chimed in: "Your husband wanted you to fight to accompany him after telling you not to act sick last week? That's some next-level hypocrisy.
"Parenting is a team sport, and it's not your fault he suddenly forgot the 'no sick days' rule when it applied to him."
Meanwhile, an individual struggled to express themselves, remarking, "I have no words for this," in reference to that same remark the OP's husband made while she was ill.
"NO WORDS. Your husband is a MASSIVE [a******]."
In her own comment, the OP added that her husband's fever went down not long after he took Tylenol and that he, "Insisted he was fine", the next morning when she brought up seeing a doctor.
"Thank you all for your feedback," she wrote in that update.
By itself, a fever is "usually harmless," as Harvard Health Publishing has noted, though a high one "can be miserable." When it comes to treating a fever at home, a post reviewed by the publication's chief medical editor said that these steps may help adults feel better:
In general, adults should contact their health care provider if their temperature is 103 degrees F (39 degrees C) or higher, per the Mayo Clinic, and seek, "Immediate medical attention", if a severe headache or rash, among other signs and symptoms to look out for, accompanies a fever.
Newsweek contacted Fit_Weather8407 for comment via Reddit.
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