Dad shamed for threatening to call police on daughter for being scared of wasps
A dad has been slammed for threatening to call the police on his daughter because she has a panic-inducing phobia of wasps. She explained how she refused to leave the family car because she could see a nest of wasps on the driveway when her father threatened her with police action.
Writing on Reddit, the user, who said she is autistic, explained that her father and his brother also tormented her about her phobia and had no sympathy for her, leaving her with a bit of PTSD – and that her family also used to tell her her fear was always ruining family trips, often threatening to hit her for having panic attacks. On this occasion, she said, there were a number of wasps buzzing about when she and her mother arrived in their driveway in their car.
The woman said: "A couple of years ago, my mum and I had just returned from the grocery store. We pulled into the driveway, and beside the driveway in front of my parents' house stands a big oak tree. Wasps do tend to hang around by that tree, of course, for the wood. At that point I had gotten myself to ignore them, as long as they didn’t bother me. This time, however, there we’re a whole bunch of them swooping and buzzing around the car."
She said her mum asked her to get out and help with the groceries, and she replied that she would soon, once she had calmed herself about the insects being around. Her mum then stayed in the car to help her daughter calm down, but her dad was in the front yard and noticed they weren't leaving the car.
The 22-year-old added: "He came up to the door and tried to open it. Of course, I screamed and held it shut, considering there were wasps flying directly by the door. My mum told him to go away, she could handle it, she was trying to calm me down and all he was doing was making me more upset.
Tragedy as 13-month-old boy dies after the stolen car he was in crashed
"Now my panic was beginning to turn into an autism meltdown. I felt trapped, and like I couldn’t escape. My dad came back after a few minutes, and tried once again to open the door. I freaked out again and started crying, begging him to leave me alone. I finally began to calm down and tried to exit the car.
"Right as I’m about to open the door, my dad emerges with his phone up to his ear. He comes up to the door and pounds on the window, which startles me into not wanting to open it again. He forces the door open and informs me, as I’m starting to fall back into my meltdown, that he’s calling the police to have me forcibly removed from the car. This, of course, terrifies me enough to immediately get me out of the car."
She says that she began crying and begging for her father to hang up then ran in to the house and locked herself in the bathroom while her mother had an argument with her dad over his actions. Her father then told his daughter it was her fault he called the police, deserved what he had tried to do and that she would be the one explaining to officers she "was too wimpy towards a few wasps to get out of the car if he’d ended up calling them".
The frightened woman said she didn't talk to her father for a couple of days afterwards and that she has now moved out but added: "I still can’t believe anybody in their right mind would call the police on an autistic person who was having a moment of distress, especially considering I wasn’t hurting myself or anybody else."
And other users of the site were shocked at her dad's actions with one saying: "He was wrong to do that to you and compounded it by punishing you by taking the car from you. I hope you go low contact with him and show him that he can’t bully you anymore. I’m very phobic about cockroaches so I understand how you feel."
While another said: "That's horrible, I have a phobia of wasps as well, admittedly I'm not as bad but wasps can literally kill me so I kind of force-trained myself to be still. I make a lot of noise though. My whole family is well aware of this and have got stung to get wasps away from me."
While a third said: "Your dad is not entitled. He is absolutely abusive. He is horrendous. I am sorry you had to deal with him. You are an abuse victim and fear of wasps is normal. They are scary. Your reaction may be a bit over the top but your fear is not. If you can afford to see a therapist to process the abuse you suffered please do."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
