12-Year-Old Daughter Refuses To Talk To Her Mother After Her Baby Sister Cried Throughout Her School Performance
Her mother missed her solo that she had been waiting for months to show her.
Yuganov Konstantin, morrowlight / Shutterstock A mother found herself in hot water after bringing her crying infant to her daughter’s school performance. After she left the theater to soothe the child, an usher prevented her from entering the theater again.
Her daughter is now refusing to speak to her after she missed a significant part of her performance. Now, the mom is wondering if she should have left her baby in someone else’s care so she could focus on her older child.
The woman left the theater after she could not soothe her screaming infant, missing her daughter’s solo performance.
Sharing her story to the subreddit, "r/AmITheA-–hole," the woman revealed that she has three children, her 12-year-old daughter Penelope and 10-year-old son Jonny with her ex-husband Will, and her 6-month-old daughter Lyla with her new husband, Chris.
She added that Penelope and Jonny live with Will, as he lives closer to their school, and that they visit her and Chris on the weekends.
Photo: LightField Studios / Shutterstock
“Penelope is in the theater program at her school,” the woman wrote. A few months ago, Penelope was in a school performance that the woman could unfortunately not attend since she went into labor and had a newborn to care for. “Penelope understood as best a preteen girl can,” she added.
Penelope was starring in a second show a few months later, and this time her mother attended along with her baby sister and step-father. The woman’s ex-husband and his new wife, Ariana, were also in attendance.
Although, her ex was not exactly approving of her choice to bring the baby to the show. “Will saw I brought Lyla and got a weird look about it but Ariana hushed him and said, ‘Just let it go,’” she wrote.
The baby slept through the first half of the performance, but woke up fussy a little before intermission.
“I began rocking her and trying to calm her while also watching the play,” the woman wrote. “I got a few dirty looks from parents around me. I gave them a ‘what can you do’ shrug, as it’s a baby.”
During intermission, Will asked Chris to take the baby home so they could watch the rest of the show uninterrupted. However, the woman and Chris refused.
“I said she should sleep during the second half and Chris said he wanted to watch the performance,” she wrote. “Will started getting upset but again, Ariana had him walk away.”
During the second half of the performance, Lyla woke up again and began screaming. “It was loud enough this time that it did catch the performers off guard,” the woman admitted.
This time, she got up with her baby and left the theater to soothe her outside. Although, once she did, she was not allowed back inside. “When I tried to go back in once she calmed, the usher wouldn’t let me, saying once a person leaves, they’re not allowed in to prevent interruptions,” the woman wrote.
Therefore, she unfortunately missed Penelope’s solo. “Penelope refused to see me after the show nor accept the flowers we bought for her,” the mother shared. “I watched her leaving with Ariana, who was consoling her.”
The woman claimed that her ex-husband was angry, along with her daughter.
“He said I never should’ve brought Lyla, pointing out he and Ariana got a sitter for their young child,” she wrote. “I said I didn’t want to leave Lyla and felt it was good we all supported her [Penelope].” She felt that it was especially important for her to show up after missing her last performance, even if it meant bringing her infant along with her.
The mother told her ex-husband that it was “just a middle school performance” and that it wasn’t “the end of the world” that she missed it. Her statement disgusted her ex, and he angrily stormed off.
The woman’s daughter has not spoken to her since. “Penelope hasn’t answered my calls or text. This weekend, she refused to come over,” she wrote. While her husband Chris believes that they are in the right, her parents are angry and called her an “a–-.”
Photo: Dragana Gordic / Shutterstock
Redditors slammed the mother for bringing a crying baby into the theater in the first place.
They pointed out that it was not only unfair to all of the other parents who wanted to watch their children perform, but also unfair to Penelope, who was clearly excited for her mother to see her performance.
“No one comes to a play to hear someone else's baby cry,” one user noted. “You disrespected the efforts of the performers, disrupted the show, missed your daughter's solo, upset the other parents around you, upset the people you are meant to be co-parenting with, likely upset your own baby... You put your own feelings over your daughter, the work of the performers, and the other families who you interrupted there to see their own kids.”
“This was a performance and not an appropriate place to bring a baby. You disrupted the event for everyone else in the audience, and still managed to let your daughter down,” another user commented.
“Congratulations. You've just taught Penelope that the baby is more important and that you don't even care about her enough to understand why you completely failed her,” another user wrote.
Other users criticized the woman for her dismissive attitude about Penelope’s performance as “just a middle school play,” pointing out that children her age need the support of their loved ones for those types of milestones.
If the woman is welcome to any future events her older children may have, she may want to consider leaving the baby at home with her husband or hiring a sitter.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.