Photo: DenPhotos / Shutterstock / Reddit
Honestly, I just feel bad for the baby.
By Dan O'Reilly — Written on Feb 20, 2022
Breakups, divorces and custody battles are the ugly side of love. An unfortunately large number of people will find themselves in a relationship that ends in divorce or will be raised in a split-household family.
These situations can be tough, but things get even tougher when one parent is going after another online.
In one Reddit post to the subreddit, r/trashy, one mother has received criticism for a Facebook post calling out her children’s father.
The mother took a picture of her baby dressed in a onesie that called out the child’s father.
In the picture posted to the mother’s Facebook, the baby’s onesie reads, “Happy Father’s Day to my Dad who left me for a 16 year old…”
The mother also wrote the following caption to the photo, “Just a quick message to my children’s dad. Happy Father’s Day, hope you’ve had an amazing day. You deserve it more then anyone.”
A screenshot of the original Facebook post was then posted on Reddit to the r/trashy subreddit, a subreddit for trashy stories and content.
The post, titled ‘Classy folk all round’ elicited a lot of criticism from commenters on the subreddit.
User u/JoeyPepperoni101 was angered by the mother’s actions, saying in the top comment on the post, “It's so frustrating knowing that there's people in this world who think airing-out-their-dirty-Laundry publicly somehow gets back at somebody else. The worst part is it's usually extraordinarily private matters that they post about.”
Many of the commenters were particularly upset with the mother’s use of the baby as a sort of ‘prop’ in the image.
This frustration was also articulated in the top comment on the post, “And don't bring the baby literally someone who has nothing to do with this into it that's a public picture on the internet of that baby forever now.
"Thank God I'm old enough to not have my entire life since birth encrypted on the Internet by my parents.”
It’s true that, regardless of the relationship between the child’s parents, the baby has nothing to do with their actions.
It isn’t like the child could choose whether or not to be involved in the picture.
The other comments on the post run the gamut from critical of one parent or the other or both. A common sentiment throughout the comments, however, is a sense of sadness for the child in the picture.
One user's comment succinctly described this consensus in their comment, saying, “Good luck to the kid, sounds like mom and dad are two pieces of work.”
It’s not a good idea to pass judgment on someone entirely based on a single moment or interaction in their life. Any substantial evaluation made about this mother is based mostly on speculation.
The fact of the matter is that child couldn’t choose whether or not to be in the picture and their mother and father are split up.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.