Dad Says He 'Got Rid' Of His Foster Child After He Caught Her Stealing From His 5-Year-Old Daughter
His foster child repeatedly violated his rules.
fizkes | Shutterstock "We were informed of a foster child in need of a home. She’s 14, has some behavioral issues, and had mild drug use," a father started a confessional posted to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA).
The subreddit is an online forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them.
He 'got rid' of his foster child after catching her stealing from his 5-year-old daughter.
In his Reddit post, the man explained that he and his wife took in the teenage girl on his wife's insistence since she knew the young girl and wanted to give her a chance.
From the moment he and his wife took in their foster child, she repeatedly violated their rules.
"She smoked weed in the house. We told her not to, she did it again. She had friends over, we said no weed, [but] they smoked anyway. Over five months, we had good and bad times, but overall it was working."
The couple also has a 5-year-old daughter, who had gotten COVID-19 and has suffered from a chronic cough since getting sick.
For the little girl's cough, she has been on medication so she can sleep peacefully at night and for times when her cough is really bad throughout the day.
"Sometimes it sounds like she is gasping for air. It’s hard to watch her suffer through this," he wrote of his daughter's sickness.
One night, he and his wife noticed that his foster daughter has invited some of her friends over to smoke once more. Upon realizing this, they both agree to talk to her about it in the morning.
When they awoke the next day, their five-year-old daughter began experiencing another coughing fit, but when they went to look for her medicine, they realized it was gone.
"My wife finally gives up and goes to the store to buy more. I drive the foster [child] to school and when I return, we find the bottle in her room."
They don't immediately think the worst, especially when they realize the bottle is not empty
However, when his wife goes to give their daughter more medicine, she realized that the substance in the cough medicine bottle they'd found in their foster daughter's room was actually Sprite.
"The foster [child] dumped [the medicine] into a Sprite bottle and drank it with her friends for a cheap buzz," he continued.
When his wife told him, he decided to remove their foster daughter from their home altogether, claiming that once she stole from his child, he was no longer fine with her staying in his home.
"The fact that she lived across the hall from my daughter and listened to her coughing all day and night and still felt ok taking her medicine is sickening and represents a depravity I was not prepared for," he pointed out.
Most Reddit users who commented on the man's post agreed that he was NTA (Not The A-hole).
"I feel sad for your family and this poor girl. Life is tough and she’s clearly been dealt a bad hand. But you’re not the a-hole for protecting your child while trying to help another," one user wrote.
Another user added, "I was a foster parent of teens for years, only after my kids moved out for that very reason."
"You have to protect your kids. If your youngest was a foster child too, you'd still have to do the same thing."
A third user chimed in, "I feel like these things should be expected with kids from the system, there's bound to be misbehavior on their part, I doubt most kids are very healthy mentally when put in a situation like that."
"I do feel like there was probably more that could have [been] done besides immediately getting rid of them, but considering the circumstances involved, I don't blame you either."
A fourth user questioned, "you asked multiple times for her to stop. Yes, some foster children have more issues than others but at what point is it enough?"
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.