Dad 'Heartbroken' After Friends Ask His 3-Year-Old About Her Dead Mother & Post The Video On Social Media
The situation only compounded the pain he was already in.
fizkes | Shutterstock Grief is difficult to cope with alone, and the support of friends and family after losing a loved one is paramount.
Sadly, after experiencing the heartbreaking death of his wife and "soulmate," one dad also had to deal with the betrayal of his close friends. He took to Reddit to lament the fact that his so-called friends asked his toddler to talk about her deceased mom, recorded the interaction, and then posted it to social media — all behind his back.
The dad was 'heartbroken' after his friends asked his 3-year-old daughter about her dead mother and posted the video on social media.
In his Reddit post, the 29-year-old father explained that his wife of five years passed away several months ago. "We were soulmates, long-time friends, and we had never imagined that we would break up/divorce/live a life apart from each other," he wrote.
As if the tragedy of losing his spouse and the mother of his child wasn't bad enough, he recently experienced some medical problems. “Last week, I sort of collapsed and had to go to the hospital,” he said. “Nothing serious, just weakness due to stress, anemia, and lack of sleep."
Hananeko_Studio | Shutterstock
While recovering in the hospital, his young daughter stayed with his close friend and his girlfriend until her grandparents were able to pick her up.
"A few days after this event, a lot of my old acquaintances and friends I hadn't heard from in years randomly began to message me, call me, ask to meet up, offer help out of nowhere," he recalled. "I didn't know why this was happening until I found out that my friend and his [girlfriend] had posted a TikTok of my child, which ended up going a bit viral in my town."
The dad is understandably "heartbroken, angry" and "bitter," saying it had him “sobbing.”
“Apparently, my friend and his girlfriend were making a video of their kid and mine playing together when my kid started crying, saying she missed her mum,” he said. “In the video, my friend and his girlfriend proceed to question her, saying ‘aw’ and ‘ooh’ and asking if she knows where her mum is, and how much she misses her mum, [and] when she’s coming back.”
He admitted that due to his daughter's young age, she has difficulty understanding that her mom is truly gone and seems to believe that she is still at work, as her mom worked outside of the home.
Antonio Guillem | Shutterstock
According to HealthyChildren.org, this is entirely normal. Children generally don't understand the concept of death until the ages of 5 to 7, and those pre-school aged — like this young girl — tend to see death as something temporary.
“The video is [expletive] captioned, ‘My friend’s wife recently passed away. I feel so bad for their daughter who doesn’t understand she’s gone,’” he added. “I wish I could explain the amount of hatred I have towards my friend, his girlfriend, and all the people who have commented saying how much they pity my kid."
“I don’t know how to get over this feeling of anger and deep resentment," the dad continued. "Since then, they have taken down the video and apologized, but how could they be so insensitive?”
It’s definitely time to break off this friendship.
Comments on the Reddit post came to a consensus — this friendship is over, or at least it should be. The father’s trust was betrayed in a way that involved his child, and there is simply no coming back from that.
“Although it may feel like a significant loss to lose a friend, someone who is no longer making your life better does not deserve that space in your life,” VeryWell Mind pointed out.
The website listed multiple ways to end a friendship, including “the gradual fade-out” and having a conversation. In this case, this dad would likely be best served by severing ties immediately.
They said this can work well for long friendships and those where something so horrible occurred that you feel the need to get away quickly — this dad's story certainly fits the bill.
While it's sad that this grieving man will lose more people he is close to, what they did was inexcusable.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.