RhymeswithOrange
New member
My daughter is 8, from a previous marriage. I have been married to my wife (my daughter's step-mom) for exactly 3 years. Now my wife has a PhD in pediatric neuropsychology, but has no children of her own. And I occasionally get the feeling she cares more about her cats than kids.
So that's the background. Anyways today I was going to take our dogs to the dog park. I brought my daughter with me. We parked the car, got out, my daughter asked if she could take one of the dogs into the park, she took the leash, started running, tripped and fell hard on the concrete. She had BIG scrapes on her knees and elbow, and smaller ones on the palms of her hands. Of course she immediately started crying, and the cuts on her knee and elbow were bleeding. So (with the help of a bystander) I carried my daughter back to the car, and the bystander helped me put the dogs back into the car. I pulled out the first aid kit in the car and tried to clean the wounds (she's still crying) but the swabs for cleaning wounds contain alcohol and they stung badly. I knew i had non-stinging stuff back home. So, back to the house we go. My daugher couldn't walk well, so I carried her in, leaving the dogs in the car. I called to my wife asking her to get the dogs while I took my daughter into the bathroom to clean up and dress her wounds.
My wife came in, somewhat annoyed, and asked first how my daughter was, and then said "you mean you didn't take the dogs to the dog park?" As if the fact that I didn't get them to run around was paramount. I immediately shot back that caring for my daughter when she's hurt is more important than exercising the dog.
She immediately loaded up the dogs in the car and took them to the park. When she came back she insisted that she didn't have any broken bones and wasn't bleeding profusely and that I should have simply dressed the wounds at the park, and had her sit on the park bench (she was crying saying "I want to go home" BTW) while I exercised the dog. She said I was encouraging her to believe that every injury was a crisis and would result in her having anxiety.
I simply cannot concieve that I did anything wrong in this situation. Since she doesn't have children of her own, I believe she can't understand that when you child is hurt, everything else comes second. Am I completely crazy?
So that's the background. Anyways today I was going to take our dogs to the dog park. I brought my daughter with me. We parked the car, got out, my daughter asked if she could take one of the dogs into the park, she took the leash, started running, tripped and fell hard on the concrete. She had BIG scrapes on her knees and elbow, and smaller ones on the palms of her hands. Of course she immediately started crying, and the cuts on her knee and elbow were bleeding. So (with the help of a bystander) I carried my daughter back to the car, and the bystander helped me put the dogs back into the car. I pulled out the first aid kit in the car and tried to clean the wounds (she's still crying) but the swabs for cleaning wounds contain alcohol and they stung badly. I knew i had non-stinging stuff back home. So, back to the house we go. My daugher couldn't walk well, so I carried her in, leaving the dogs in the car. I called to my wife asking her to get the dogs while I took my daughter into the bathroom to clean up and dress her wounds.
My wife came in, somewhat annoyed, and asked first how my daughter was, and then said "you mean you didn't take the dogs to the dog park?" As if the fact that I didn't get them to run around was paramount. I immediately shot back that caring for my daughter when she's hurt is more important than exercising the dog.
She immediately loaded up the dogs in the car and took them to the park. When she came back she insisted that she didn't have any broken bones and wasn't bleeding profusely and that I should have simply dressed the wounds at the park, and had her sit on the park bench (she was crying saying "I want to go home" BTW) while I exercised the dog. She said I was encouraging her to believe that every injury was a crisis and would result in her having anxiety.
I simply cannot concieve that I did anything wrong in this situation. Since she doesn't have children of her own, I believe she can't understand that when you child is hurt, everything else comes second. Am I completely crazy?