While some of us are well aware of the hills we’re willing to die on, others only came face to face with the limits of their ability to compromise the hard way.
And often, the matters that people are unwilling to budge on will often seem petty and inconsequential to an outside observer. And after enough of these strange conflicts come our way, we may find ourselves thinking that there’s no situation where there isn’t some room for compromise.
But of course, that’s easy to say until you find yourself on that proverbial hill. And when the person you’re arguing with is suggesting something that seems unacceptable to the point of being dangerous, it becomes easier to see why so many others chose their own hills.
After a period of struggling to make friends, one mom’s 12-year-old daughter met a girl code named Danielle.
As the mom explained in a Reddit post , she was concerned with how “obsessed” this girl was with making her daughter popular, but felt the girl was nice and trying to help her make more friends.
Once these two become closer, Danielle’s mom offered to drive both children to school while the other mom picked them and Danielle’s 14-year-old brother up.
At first, this arrangement worked out very well, especially for the two girls.
But for some reason, it was never easy to get either Danielle or her brother to wear their seat belts.
And as the mom said, “This is a no argument situation for me, kid or adult, you’re wearing a seat belt. I lost a friend in high school and it all could’ve been prevented had she worn it.”
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But while the two kids were less argumentative about this rule for a time, one incident saw them refuse to put a seat belt on for 45 minutes. And despite her daughter’s pleas to drive off anyway, the mom was willing to wait until they complied.
Unfortunately, this soon led to her receiving an angry phone call from Danielle’s mom because this argument made the brother late for a soccer game.
This mother hadn’t seemed concerned when she was told her kids didn’t want to wear seat belts. And even at this point, she was more angry about the mom’s attempts to control her kids than this continued refusal to put them on.
And while it seemed at first that they could resolve this by ending the car pool arrangement, Danielle’s mom refuses to let the other child see her until the mom apologizes to both her and her brother.
In the mom’s words, “My husband thinks I should fake an apology so our daughter can keep her friend.”
However, despite the fact that her daughter now won’t speak to her, she thinks that giving in to this demand sets a poor example.
And the Reddit community she reached out agreed to the point that they were baffled Danielle’s mom thinks she has anything to apologize for.
As one commenter said , “In the event of a collision the passengers that aren’t wearing seatbelts become projectiles that can injure any else in the car alongside themselves. It’s completely illegal to not wear a seatbelt and especially so for a minor not to – and the driver is responsible, there is no ‘pass’ because the parents say it’s okay.”
As such, users were horrified to get the impression that Danielle’s mom apparently sees nothing wrong with endangering her children in this way.
In the words of one of them, “That mom wants you to apologize to two kids for…following the law and keeping them safe? That’s incredibly messed up, and also sends a terrible message to your own kid!”
As another user put it , “In fact Danielle’s mother owes you an apology for raising 2 children that were blatantly disrespectful. Seat belts save lives. You did the right thing.”
So while it was easy to understand her daughter’s frustration that this bizarre situation cost her a friend, the community couldn’t help but think that staying away from this family could be better for her in the long run.
h/t: Reddit | SafeTaro
