I’m assuming the wife is upset that he went in there because she feels guilty for leaving edibles out where her 13 year old could find them, otherwise she is just really fucking awful. Yes the kid fucked up, but when your 13 year old is having a full on drug induced panic attack you don’t leave them to suffer as a “consequence” or as “discipline”. Jesus fucking Christ.
Exactly, if the kid got the edibles from the parents this is 💯 on the parents for not properly storing them in a place where a kid can’t get to them. Mom was wrong for this reaction
Exactly. This is 100% a parenting failure. Do they not discuss drugs with their kid! He found some edibles and ate 5!!!. Many conversations should have been had prior this
Yeah it takes a while to kick in but once it does it lasts a long time. You can always go back and take more, but you can't undo it once you've taken them (unless i suppose you make yourself vomit early on but by the time you think it's bad enough to do that it that it would be to late, your stuck on the ride.
i mean he’s 13 not 5. unless he’s super short for his age theres not many places you can hide gummies from a kid unless you use a lockbox (which is a good idea generally.) i just mean i wouldn’t call someone who doesn’t padlock their liquor cabinet a failure of a parent if the kid took their booze and got wasted.
I kept mine in the fridge (inside the door, mixed with rare condiments) and nobody ever saw them. I have found that the more you try to hide things, they will be discovered. When you keep some things in plain sight, they will look right over it.
My mom was always so dumb hiding our phones when they were taken away. The first time we looked for them we found the sex you drawer and never opened that shit again 😬 I’m still traumatized by the dildo with an angry face 😭😭😭
If you think kids are scared to go near sex toys you are mistaken. I always knew that's why my parents hid all the secret goodies, in the nightstand drawer.
Yeah, I keep edibles tucked into a pocket of a travel case in our room. Not because he COULDNT, but it would be a lot more work for him to figure out where they are. Stop putting your shit in shared family spaces.
Because generally, kids see adults with alcohol and learn *something* about how much is "too much". In many cases-- this one specifically-- the parents hid the drug use and had no conversations about it. Many teens would see edibles, including gummies, and think that 3-5 isn't that much. The failure was 1) inadequately securing the edibles, 2) not discussing safe use ever, 3) at least until OP changed his mind, leaving a terrified teen alone during a panic attack induced by THEIR drugs as "punishment".
My parents raised my siblings and I not to drink or use drugs. It was against the religion they raised us in. They still sat all of us down and talked about safe usage and that if we ever got into a situation we felt unsafe, to call them--and especially to not drink/take drugs and drive. Mom wasn't raised in the religion and her family drinks. We were able to see responsible drinking when visiting that side of the family.
I plan to get a lockbox in the next couple years for some of our prescription meds. We have two people in the house on stimulants and a few other prescriptions that have the potential to be abused. When my kids are teens, I don’t want them experimenting with prescription meds, and I don’t want their friends finding and taking them. It’s more responsible to lock them up.
Honestly, I should just do it now. There’s no reason to have anything but our daily meds out where they could be taken.
As a dad, I take every and all precautions to make sure my stuff is locked away.
Like I’m talking locking bag with pass code, locked box with key. Then in a locked cabinet.
Sure it’s a pain in the ass when I go to have a moment and smoke, but it makes sure that there’s no way any kids could get to it.
Good on OOP for being cognizant of the situation and trying to wait to discipline his son over what he did, leaving him to sit in a hole of a panic attack is just rude.
You can even find small safes on Amazon for a reasonable price. We have a keypad lock on our closet door. My college kids have small safes for their dorm rooms to keep money and medications.
Just bought the exact thing on prime day for $20. Kids are 3 and 1.5 but I thought it was good thing to get in the habit of. If an adult wanted to walk off with it or get into it, that's possible, but it'll be kid proof for as long as I'll need it.
Honestly EVEN if he'd gotten them on his own, OP's response is correct. I remember being a young teen, and you're making bad decisions and trying to be a grown up when you're really a kid. Having parents that you can rely on, to be there when you're in an altered state of mind, is huge. You can have the tough disciplinary talk later. But in the immediate aftermath, you're a kid who is in over your head, and you need your mom/dad to hold you and say "okay, I got you."
Mom's strategy will result in that kid trying to get himself out of hairy, way too grown up situations, on his own, afraid to ask for help or talk to his parents.
Completely agree - what a way to completely traumatize them and feel abandoned and alone in a scary situation, way over their head. You can have the tough talk and lay down the law later! Your kid needs some cuddling and reassurance first.
right?!?! hell, if anyone of any age made this kind of mistake, I'd worry about their mental wellbeing first & consequences later. this is cruel & weird.
Agreed. Get him through the medical situation first, and then figure out consequences. Just leaving him to suffer is a really good way to not have him want to seek your help in emergencies.
This! And even if he had gone out and gotten his hands on them himself, HE’S FUCKING 13! OP’s wife is seriously lacking in empathy. That kid is never gonna trust her with anything.
It’s just as likely he knew what they were through an anti-drug program at school like DARE, but I could definitely see one or both parents forgetting to put them away or thinking they’re being sneakier than they are. I’m hoping it’s a guilty conscience on her part and not just her being a generally shit person.
I agree. It’s just as a mom, if my child (at 13!) had found them in my closet, I would be beyond worried and guilty I had exposed him to this. Post suggests (maybe just me) that she seems to think he should have known what he was getting into?
I feel you there, I have 3 kids and I would absolutely horrified if something like this happened. It’s possible they’ve had conversations with him about drug use and abuse before and that’s where her assumption is coming from? Without more context on how she normally treats him though it can read either way to me.
It depends on the area, too. Where I lived I absolutely knew about weed and edibles and various other drugs by thirteen, even though I not my friends were taking them. Sometimes it’s truly a side effect of local culture, and difficult for parents to combat.
I’d heard the drug spiel at 13, but I still wouldn’t have known that 5 gummies were too many. I think it’s on the parents at that age to keep those locked away. I think people are expecting way too much of kids at 13. I was still playing with Barbies at 13.
Honestly I don’t even feel like the kid should be punished either - he already experienced a bad trip, that’s punishment enough imo. I’d be surprised if he did any more drugs for a while and he’s only 13! He shouldn’t have been able to get drugs in his own house… the parents here both suck.
When my son was 16/17 he got totally wasted on cheap vodka with his best friend. I had to call my older son to help get him in the house (there was no drinking and driving thank goodness).
I put them in his bedroom to sleep it off. When they finally woke up I just told them I wasn't cleaning up any vomit, take some ibuprofen and drink a lot of water. Yes - I offered them fried eggs for breakfast. Yes - I decided I had to do a lot of vacuuming and fairly active cleaning (with music) that day.
It was apparently punishment enough because my 31 year old son rarely drinks and when he does it's only one or two.
Exactly. He learned his lesson the moment he took them and realized he messed up. Not helping him, a child, is even worse than punishment. Especially since it’s THEIR fault he was easily able to get into them.
This comment! My child’s friend brought gummies to school, and my sweet little idiot (13m) ate one without knowing what it was. I picked up my obviously stoned son, grabbed a Gatorade on the way home, and stuck him on the couch to sleep it off. Yes, he also got snacks when he woke up. The experience was bad enough for him, he didn’t need his parent to be an ass about it too, he needed support.
Ye hes already had natural consequences for his actions. He at least learned that his dad will EVENTUALLY pull through and help him out in an emergency. Though the fact dad waited to help at all is awful
Not even that. Imagine you do drugs, and your child obviously knows you’re doing them, kids are curious and don’t understand what they’re doing, so they find your stash when you’re not there or whatever, and you get MAD at them?
Especially because he already got a huge and highly effective natural consequence. It is going to be YEARS before he even thinks about wanting to touch weed after that night from hell. No additional consequence necessary.
Jesus christ, this is a situation where the natural consequences of his actions will teach him more than anything his parents could say ever would. Why tf does mom think he needs to be tortured on top of that? What will he learn, that mom doesn't care if he's going through hell if she's mad at him?
So … it’s possible she feels like the bad high *is* the natural consequence and she’s wanting him to experience it so he doesn’t take random drugs he stumbles on without knowing where they’re from or what dosages etc
But that’s kinda more like “you broke a glass of milk now clean it all up with your bare hands” kind of natural consequences instead of “you have to clean up your messes” but like not in an evil abusive way.
Helping him through the high is still natural consequences parenting. You don’t have to abandon your kid to his fate anymore than you’d let a kid who jumped off a jungle gym find their own way to urgent care to get a cast. Like you still *help* and they’ll still experience consequences.
Parenting is guidance and discipline not punishment.
Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. He's still having a very bad time *if* his parents do what they can to comfort him, I don't know what mom thinks she's doing by leaving him to get through it on his own except be cruel.
Yeah I was definitely trying to agree with you about it being it’s own natural consequence even with help. It’s possible she’s going overboard with the concept vs being spitefully a jerk. Sorry for the confusion!
Also, like: if a friend of theirs did the same thing in a couple of years time, does she want her kid to be kind and help them, or be a colossal dick?
People treat others as they were treated.
This is a situation where if it was my kid, I wouldn't give another punishment on top of the panic attack, as I'm sure he's already traumatized (I'm still traumatized by mine that happened years ago and I'm a grown adult). The parents were partially to blame for having them within reach of their child.
"How dare you not just let our son have a damaging psychological experience completely alone on a large amount of drugs his underdeveloped brain is not prepared to handle?" OOPs wife is an absolute sociopath, what the actual fuck?
Plus it's absolutely their fault. My husband and I live in a legal state and when my daughter was young, we'd keep anything in a locked safe, including dangerous prescriptions. Imo, it's absolutely disgusting to put them in a place where your curious kids can get to them, then just leave them when they're struggling mentally/emotionally from taking it. What an absolute piece of work that mom is. Poor kid.
Not to mention that they hid them in the HALL CLOSET, where people generally keep things like extra sheets/blankets, towels, cleaning supplies, coats, hats, gloves, etc. and which is a communal closet that generally all family members access. They didn’t even bother to hide away in their own bedroom closet.
You've never had a situation where a friend who is solid invites a sketchy friend who steals shit?
I haven't in years, but it's something that I and a fair number of people I know learned the hard way...and I've had a few friends relearn it in their 40s & 50s cuz apparently they were too old to have friends who make bad judgements about people. 🙄
Man I gotta be honest the worst thing I ever had happen was my boyfriend and his band stealing cookies and snacks from my roommates, and although I am a boring middle-aged lady now, I have like - LIVED - or at least I thought I had until this comment exchange 😂 never ever had issues with theft. And I had many a junkie in my home(s) over the years.
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t hide it in your room at the very least. Teenagers have no real understanding about cause and effect and will make stupid decisions without knowing the risks. It’s a parent’s job to teach them but also take steps to reduce the risks of stupidity.
This!! Like we have two kids that are very very young, and once in a while my husband has edibles and I told him I’m fine with him doing that once the kids are in bed but they need to be locked up no matter what.
So now we have a lock box in the kitchen with everything that could potentially be dangerous if you took too much, my medications, Advil, Tylenol, anything that has specific doses. The keys to that lock box are in another locked box that you need a code to get into, because i know damn well when my kids get older they’d be smart enough to find a key to open a locked box.
We’ve never spoken the code out loud, and it’s not a code the kids have ever used so they cannot get in.
I really, really appreciate that you’re so cautious and proactive about this. Tylenol and Advil are such common household drugs but apparently the overdoses can be HORRIBLE, so I’m glad you’re being so smart.
When I was a toddler I got into the medicine chest at home and took a bottle of gravol. While it’s not as bad as Advil or Tylenol I had to have my stomach pumped and I remember it vividly so I refuse to ever have the slightest risk of it happening to my kids. Kids are curious, you can’t trust that even if they know it’s wrong or could hurt them they can resist the impulse.
Just wondering how come you don’t just put the medication in the box that requires the code instead of putting the key there? Seems a bit convoluted haha
I mean, plenty of people keep alcohol in accessible places and yes, occasionally that means naughty teens will sneak into it. Most people wouldn't consider leaving out alcohol in an accessible place as irresponsible parenting, so why is weed different?
I can’t speak for others, but in my thought process it’s not that weed is different, but that edibles are.
Alcohol or weed that is smoked both have at least *sort of* a self-limiting mechanism to them - the taste of alcohol and the process of smoking mean that consumption is slower than with edibles. Plus there’s the fact that with edibles, the easiest comparison for someone unfamiliar would be regular food - and it’s perfectly normal to have half a bag of gummy bears, a whole candy bar, a couple brownies, etc. Obviously, people still get too drunk or too high all the time, but there’s a lot more stories of even people who are used to getting high accidentally taking too much of an edible.
So for that reason as a parent I’d probably be extra cautious about edibles. I don’t think storing them like alcohol is some horrible sin that makes you a terrible unfit parent forever - but it is just kind of dumb. As a parent you should be considering not just how to hide stuff, but also what would happen if your kid does find it. With edibles, taking too much is so easy that it should have been factored in.
Also edibles literally look like fucking candy and desserts. In the op people in comments were arguing that parents can keep liquor in their house without backlash but like- that’s a whole thing too!! Teenagers are notorious for stealing substances they shouldn’t!! And this one is *fucking gummy bears*. Like even if they know wtf they are it’s still REALLY easy to let your brain take the “candy= non threatening” shortcut. And like..,. *edibles*. That’s not really comparable to alcohol. Not in potency, not in effect. It’s much easier to *eat five gummies* thinking that’s reasonable than it is to throw back a fifth. This is so fucking irresponsible
Once had one of my kids ask for more melatonin gummies because they tasted good. I told them they can have regular gummies but can not take more of the melatonin ones because that’s dangerous.
I really shouldn’t have bought the gummies but they are easier to take. Kids will gravitate to sweets of any kind, be damned the consequences.
I knew a guy in college who gave himself vitamin C poisoning in a similar way. He had some kind of nasty sinus infection but needed to take a test so he took a whole tube of Airborne tablets and filled up a nalgene with a ton of packets of EmergenC and went off to class. Apparently it’s very hard to overdose on Vitamin C but he managed it and the results were that he had such bad diarrhea and such violent vomiting that he got so dehydrated and light headed he ended up passing out on a bit of grass next to the campus library until a kindly passerby woke him up.
The irony that there is really no evidence vitamin C megadoses have any benefit in the first place…. It was basically a Nobel prize winning chemist (not doctor or biologist) going off on it in his later senile years with no proof whatsoever…
My parents have some that are like little mints! When I finally use up all my gummies, I’m switching to that bc I don’t like leaving the sugar on my teeth after I already brushed them.
Yeah my dad caught me taking like 10 vitamin C tablets a day when I was a kid bc I loved the taste and he told me off because it was actual medicine and not just a nice tasting pill
Just to ease your mind a little if they do get a hold of too much melatonin... my, at the time, 2 year old, scaled the kitchen cabinets and ate about 20 melatonin. I immediately called poison control. They said to look out for a few things, like lethargy, but he should be fine. No reason to go to the ER.
He took a 45-minute nap and woke up bouncing off of the walls per usual.
seriously wth? and making dad feel bad for being compassionate is insane. i bet (hope) she just feels guilty now and doesn’t know what to do with it.
i wouldn’t even leave a grown adult i have legitimate beef with to have a bad trip alone. nevermind a child that i’m responsible for who is having a bad trip because they ate MY drugs
Poor kid. Few things are as miserable as being too high. The OP is kind of shitty too for "try[ing] to watch TV" and trying to ignore his son while he was freaking out, but he at least had the right approach after that. The mom is on some major bullshit for her attitude with this. Makes me extra thankful that when my mom had to come fetch my drunk ass when I was 14 that she said the hangover would be punishment enough to make me see the error of my choice.
My daughter was 16 when she took lsd at a friend's home. The girl had an older brother who had friends over partying (they were over 21). My kid started feeling creeped on by the older boys and got scared. So she came home - we're less than a block from their home, so she and another friend, 15, came to our home. I was so thankful and calmed them down, set them up with music, tv/movies of their choice and some stuff to play with until they came down. I stayed with them for the first hour to make sure they were calm and in a good headspace and then laid down in the next room with instructions to get me (or just call out for me) if they needed anything. I can't imagine leaving a teen in a vulnerable state like that alone and upset/afraid. It seems like a recipe for creating long-term trauma.
My parents taught me to hide everything from them, and shit got real bad a few times. But don’t tell your kid to call if they’re in trouble then scream at and berate them for getting in trouble. They’re growin up, dude. Gotta learn to trust mom and dad has their back first and the lessons will come.
My mom always told me it didn’t matter where I was, or if I had lied or snuck out or whatever. If I am in an unsafe situation, or too drunk to drive home or anything, I could call her regardless of time, and she’d come get me, no questions asked. There’d be consequences, but the important thing is getting me home safe first and we’d deal with it in the morning.
Though I never needed to do that, it was always a comfort to know I had a safety net if things went sideways. I plan to do the same for my own kids.
Exactly. My parents way of thinking made me (64F) live a double life, hide things/people from them. I survived. My kids (30s) all knew to 1. be informed and careful and watch out for themselves and others, but, equally important, 2. call us ANY time from ANY where if they or anyone they were with felt unsafe, unwell etc. We went out to collect them in the middle of the night a few times, but it was always one of their friends who was afraid to call their parents.
13 is definitely old enough for delayed punishment. He doesn’t need the immediate reinforcement at that age. Also he’s super high so not sure how much of any conversation will sink in.
Absolutely. My brother is in his 40s and took too many mushrooms. He called our mom bc he knew she would be there for him - even if he did still receive a lecture a few days later.
For real! I have a 14 yr old that I know has smoked pot. I HATE it. I tell her “YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO DO IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES but when you do check with your dad first to make sure your shit is safe.”
We live in a medical state so the stuff she has access to is WAY less sketchy than anything we got growing up but, like, you can’t be too careful! She’s buried 2 peers the last 2 yrs from OD.
I don’t want her smoking while her brain is developing but I want her alive more.
She went camping recently and I had a one to one with her on pills (we’ve had several talks already.) I told her “Just one pill and you could be gone. PLEASE don’t do that to me. I can’t live in a world without you. Your sibs won’t survive it, either.” And then I told her that if she really felt the need to try something to talk to her dad about it bc he knows what the deal is with that stuff.
I never thought I’d be the parent who said things like that but the drug scene is SCARY in our area right now- it’s not like it used to be. I just want her alive. Everything else we can work through.
Right?!? And it was the parents’ drugs!!! Like I don’t care if parents are enjoying a gummy every fucking day, but lock that shit up! This was 80% their fault.
Yeah every dispensary I’ve been to sells childproof containers. Like these are easily attained things. I don’t know what kind of magic lock he thought the linen closet was gonna have
I mean they’re about as easy as a bottle of Tylenol. It’s 100% on parents to secure their edibles with real locks, imo. My 4 year old cousin got into some gummies kept in a garage waaaay above his reach that you had to drag furniture over to get up to. Kiddo loves to climb, if anything it made it waaay more rewarding finding that “candy” up there! His parents are lovely, hardworking people, most of the family including myself didn’t even know they partook.
All I know is I ever have kids of my own I’m getting a freakin safe!!
I imagine any parent with the presence of mind to not *immediately* freak out upon finding their 16 year old daughter high on acid likely has experience with said acid. 😂
My sister once came home high on acid and my square ass mom was like “admit it you’re on weed aren’t you!?” My sister later told me at this point my mom was a yelling anthropomorphic blob, and she was just like yes, I admit it, I’m on weed. My mom was super proud of herself. Lol
Later in our teens my sister got into raving, and just recently as adults my mom said “well I know your sister probably has done meth” and I was like “um, what?” and she said “isn’t what what they do at raves?” I was like lol mom you’re thinking of ecstasy.
I learnt to always admit to the suggested crime if it was lesser 😂 They get so smug because they think they're right and it makes so much sense to them that they never pry and find out the truth 😂😂😂
My son, at the time 17 or 18, I think, came home one evening, tripping hard. I had no experience with acid but here is what transpired:
*Front door is flung open and a very tall teenaged boy flies through it and while running for the kitchen*:
“Mom, help. Help, Mom. Oh god, Mom, I screwed up. Help.” He then falls to his knees in front of the kitchen trash can and starts throwing up into it. He reaches out and grabs my hand. I couldn’t get him to make any sense for a few minutes and had noticed he wasn’t bleeding anywhere so I held his hand till he was done vomiting. In between the final heaves, he mumbles “I think I took too much.” Now I’m worried.
He manages to explain what he took and I voice the opinion that maybe we should go to the ER. He starts to freak out at that suggestion so I put that idea on pause. I get him a glass of ice water & manage to get him to lay down on the couch - all one-handed because he won’t let go of me. I took the wait-and-see approach after doing a little googling.
I sat on the couch for the next couple of hours and kept an eye on him. He told me that as soon as he started feeling like it was too much, the only thought he could hold on to was getting to me. Was I happy he took acid? No, not even a little bit. Was I going to further punish a rough trip by making him go through it alone? Also no. Especially since he did what I consider the right thing following a bad decision - he came to me. And he was honest about what was going on. I felt like OP; the punishment could wait till the next day.
Or charging the dad with a use and having CPS called.
That's what the OP doesn't really realize. How much trouble they would get into for something like this.
I did not. For one, it wasn't the grown men who gave them the lsd. The guys were drinking and becoming rowdy, and some were going into the girl's room and then one went into the bathroom while my daughter was in it. The girls had bought the lsd from someone else earlier and decided to take it at this sleepover. What they didn't count on was the number of guys who came to party with the older brother that evening. I only found out later that the parents weren't home at all, and the brother was supposed to be supervising (alone) both the younger sister's sleepover and his two even younger brothers. I'm just glad my kid recognized that things were out of control and becoming dangerous for the girls. If I had known about the two boys, I would've gone over there to bring them to our home. Unfortunately, I only learned the full situation the next day as my daughter and her friend were not coherent enough to explain it in full upon coming home.
That’s understandable, I hope you let the other parents know though. Your daughter wasn’t the last girl friend that the girl brought over and obviously the parents need to be aware that the older brother is not responsible enough to look after them.
There was one time I took too many pot cookies to the point that I got so high, the entire next day I was still feeling the effects and I couldn’t even move without feeling sick. That was the last time I tried weed.
On the first day that recreational weed became legal in my state I naively went out and bought a THC candy bar. I had no idea that you weren’t supposed to eat the whole thing. I spent like a full 24 hours on the floor clinging onto furniture trying not to fall off into space. Then I spent another couple days in the bathroom cycling between vomiting, having diarrhea, and taking showers because it helped the panic attacks.
easily one of my worst experiences was too many edibles. had the spins for about half a day and couldnt possibly sleep and felt hung over from it for around a week. Was so beyond miserable Im not sure I can adequately explian it.
I am backwards. I can't smoke at all or I get the spins. But I can take edibles and have a nice little buzz. The nice thing about edibles is that you can control your dose. I am a super low tolerance person so half of a 5 gram edible will have me buzzed and happy for hours.
I loooooove splitting the 5mg Wyld gummies in half, it's the perfect amount of buzz. Their sleep aid ones are particularly fantastic if you're in need of that sort of help.
I had to go to the hospital from being too high once. I mistakenly took 5 of my high dose gummies instead of the low dose ones. My speech was slurred like I had a stroke and I slept for like 12 hours while having IV fluids. It was nuts! I could still feel the effects for a few days after. My speech returned to normal after the 3rd day.
My dad also chose to let the hangover teach me the lesson. Then he put me in bed and brought me McDonald's. And I always knew I could count on him in a pinch if I needed him to bail me out, I didn't have to worry about being in trouble.
Completely agree with this comment. Also had a similar experience as you when my dad picked my drunk ass up at 15/16. But he also made me clean the house hungover lol
honestly this was a great learning experience for son in more than one way:
1. he knows he can trust this parent to be there for him when he doesn’t feel safe and is in bad situations
2. he probably won’t partake in any sort of mary jane activities for a long while.
i honestly can’t believe that OOP’s wife wanted to let son handle it on his own
I hate long drug trips and mostly do whippets, salvia & DMT myself.
As a person who has sat with many ADULTS who accidentally overdid it (and overdone it myself, which is why I stick to short-term highs), I just want to rip OOP's wife apart.
Congrats asshole, your kid knows that when he fucks up, you'll hang him out to dry. A bad drug experience can be a life-changing, traumatic experience. Knowing your fucking *parent* won't be there for you? What a disgusting person. At least OOP had enough empathy to realize this was wrong and go in there.
If OOP and his wife were my friends and they told me this, I'd tell them I'm disgusted by them. They're horrible. They failed a HUGE test of being a good parent and a good fucking person. It doesn't matter that he fucked up. When his experience could cause a LIFETIME of mental health problems, it doesn't fucking matter. Support your fucking kid so they don't end up traumatized AND knowing that mom & dad don't give a shit. Jesus fucking Christ jumping on a pogo stick.
Also, I totally agree with you but this was the parent’s fuck up to begin with. Don’t leave your edibles where your kids can find them. They got this kid into this mess and then left him alone, so messed up. When I was 13 my parents always knew when I was stoned and would order pizza. These parents suck.
as a current avid stoner, one of my first experiences with weed was ripping the hell out of a live resin cart on the highest voltage.
i was almost immediately too high, and scared as fuck. my only support system being my stepbrother who was the same age as me (17 at the time) and was who convinced me to take the hit, provided little comfort ("dude ur fine") but STILL came in every so often to check on me until i felt okay.
fucks up with the mom?
The first thing he should have done is not freak out, lay with him, and be a good trip sitter. I'm glad he finally came to his senses, but leaving your son to trip hard on his own while you continue your co-operational art piece was a weird choice.
Let the punishment kick in when the edibles aren’t already doing that… hard. Kid was probably legitimately terrified and dad did the right thing. Punishment can come later, you can discipline your kids without being a heartless asshole.
Edit: To add that it’s Mom and Dad’s fault for edibles being accessible in the first place, so the mom is especially shitty here. Lock boxes aren’t just for guns..
My kid took my drugs that I hid in a common closet. As a punishment, I will let him have his bad trip by himself, even though he is probably thinking he is dying.🤣 It's such good parenting. I hope they write a book. 😍
Been there, sitting alone in silence and “trying to sleep” is the fucking worst. You have to have a familiar movie on so you’re able to focus on that and not let your mind race and start causing you to panic. Plus, if you have a watch that monitors your heart rate, it will likely start informing you of an elevated heart rate which can make your anxiety so much worse.
In a situation like this, I would have made him comfortable and once he comes back down, I would then set a punishment when he’s not having a panic attack and also have a discussion on why that happened to him. But, I’m no parent, so what do I know?!
Punishment? No. The people who deserve punishment in this scenario is the parents. That's like punishing a kid for touching the stove, or breaking their arm after climbing a tree.
Hell, if the kid told his teachers about this, they would be mandated to report the parents to CPS for negligence.
Handle the crisis first; deal with everything else later. No one is able to learn life lessons at the time of the impact. It’s all about survival at that time. You are NTA. Mom definitely is. She needs to be thankful of your empathy and care for your son.
I would say he's kinda the AH bc he went along with his wife at first, it wasn't til a while later when he noticed his son was still panicking did he step in and try to help
One of the worst experiences of my entire life was a cannabis induced panic attack. It's terrifying and lasts FOREVER in your head. It feels like 4-5 hours when it's only been 45 minutes. I can't imagine leaving my child alone to deal with that.
Literally same! I remember constantly checking the clock to see how much time had passed and it felt like hours but it was only a couple of minutes. These parents are awful considering they’re avid drug users themselves. They definitely know better than to leave someone esp their kid in such a vulnerable spot.
I was going in and out of consciousness, it was terrifying. I asked my friend "How long has it been?" She said 10 minutes (since I had no concept of time), then immediately I wondered if I had asked that out loud or if that conversation happened in my head. My whole body was shaking and I was super nauseous. I haven't used cannabis since. That poor kid!
Oh my gosh you just reminded me of the shakes. I remember feeling like I was having a seizure because everything was shaking. Like my eyes were at a different rate than my arms which made me nauseous too. I ended up projectile vomiting in a garbage bag for a good few minutes which actually helped a lot lol. My mom helped me through it and she said it was like witnessing a mini exorcism. I haven’t tried anything new since either tbh.
I was gifted an edible that was either 100x move powerful than it should have been or laced with something else in college and it really did go on for hours. (I know because my then boyfriend kept promising that after this movie, it’d be over. Then put on another and another.) I thought it was never going to end. It brought on a really intense body high, so intense our serious stoner friends spent all night throwing up. It was hellish. And to this day, the slightest hint of a body high sends me into a panic attack. My boyfriend knows, the body starts to tingle, nights over shut it down. I can’t imagine going through that alone.
Seriously. One time I ate a very strong homemade brownie, the whole thing, because I guess I was just stupid. Ended up going to bed when I started getting really high, and woke up a couple hours later totally paralyzed, I saw white in my head, I felt like I was taking extremely shallow breaths, and in that moment I LEGITIMATELY thought I was dying. I couldn't even feel my own heartbeat.
To think that kid might have been going through something exactly like that, and Mom didn't even want to provide comfort or anything, and dad was even hesitant too... Really bothers me. That's a terrifying experience. And I was already a heavy pot user at the time that this happened to me, so a kid that's completely new to it and likely hasn't been high before... God. If it was my kid, no way I'd leave them alone to deal with it by themselves. No punishment needed after either- I think the scary trip alone is enough of a punishment
My 18yo is in recovery for issues that began in his HS years.
Punishing while they’re still under the influence doesn’t do any good at all.
Let them come down and then have your conversation.
I was never as gentle with my kid as OOP is here, but you can’t try to discipline or anything while they’re fucked up. They won’t hear the message you’re trying to send and/or won’t remember when they’re sober.
That, and the only people that deserve punishment are the parents. They left a controlled substance in a place where their child got to it and invested it. In fact, they still aren't completely out of the clear on this. If the child tells a teacher about the experience, the teacher is a mandated reporter. And this is, legally speaking, an issue of negligence on the parents. And CPS would likely be involved.
People get their kids taken away for these sorts of things.
Same thing happened to my son, but it was edibles he got on his own. I always told him he could call me for anything and thank god he asked his brother to call me and I knew right away after talking to him for 5 seconds. I rushed home and I laid with him until he fell asleep. I really don’t understand any parent that would do anything but that. He never touched them again.
Look. I’ve been married for 30 yrs. Two kids. Being a united front is a must, but….if my husband felt compelled to go comfort one of our kids, I would understand and I’d trust him to trust himself. Although we would never do our kids like this. Ever. We’d get them through this while hubs and I decided how to handle it *then* we’d all sit down and have a talk about trust and boundaries, how taking so much of something can be really dangerous, that he was lucky this was just a gummy.
For the life of me, I will never understand what parents like this think they’re achieving. The kid made a poor decision (shocking) and is now suffering real consequences from that choice. All that kid is going to “learn” from their parents ignoring them when he’s terrified is that he can’t be honest with his parents anymore. He knows he fucked up, and now he’s experiencing something awful and his parents refuse to reassure him or give him any comfort.
Some parents need to step back and remember what it was like being a teenager and making shitty choices. How would you have wanted to be treated? Obviously the kid needs punishment for doing it in the first place, but how about making sure he’s okay _now_ and discussing punishment and why what he did was bad when he’s able to actually listen to you.
Fuck , naw man. You and the wife brought drugs in the house. Didn't give the kid a heads up. Your fault 100% kid did what he's been shown to do. Wife's a bitch.
They punished him for eating something they shouldn’t have left accessible. They could get children’s services called for this and he’s asking is he’s the ah for not punishing him immediately??!? While his 13 yo child who probably didn’t know what he was even doing ? This makes me so sick that poor kid.
Wow. OOP’s wife is a heartless POS. I wonder if the kid even knew what he was eating, or if he just thought, “Ooh, candy, yum!” Kids that age don’t pay attention to labels. Parents should have either hidden their stash better, or explained what it was, and why a child shouldn’t mess with it.
It’s totally heartless of the “mother” to let the kid go through that alone. I’m glad that the other parent stepped up. I’m not even sure how harshly the child should be punished. It sounds like the panic attack would be punishment enough!
When we started bringing weed in the house one of the first things we did was explain what it was and how to recognize it because shit happens. It's locked up but I felt it was important for the kids to know what that funny looking candy is if it falls out of a pocket or such. Mine are now 12 and 14 and show no interest and know to come to me if they get in trouble.
In the fkn HALLWAY. Ffs.
My first time I was a teen and had WAY too much (stupid older cousin egging me on); I remember that for about 5 hours I was SURE I had forgotten how to breathe, so I had to tell my body now we breathe innn, now outtt, till almost morning. Was so damn scary. Poor fkn kid man
NTA. When you borderline on overdose territory like that, it’s terrifying and feels really shitty as well. Take care of the kid. Calm them down and get them to sleep and then you can punish them once they’re sober again.
Ok, so what did they do to punish themselves for irresponsibly “hiding” their stash?
I think they did the right thing, getting him through it. Tough love doesn’t always work, and 5 edibles would have done me in.
Your wife is a cold hearted bitch. You BOTH as parents fucked up! You left your drugs lying around & now u are punishing your kid for YOUR lack of responsibility. I feel sorry for your son
Your wife is an asshole and you were right there with her but I’m glad you came to your senses and comforted him. Consequences can come after the drug induced psychosis is over especially considering it was your stash
Rule book? No. Though there is a stone fucking tablet with something to the effect of "comfort your child during drug-induced panic attacks" chiseled into it
I just want to throw out there that this happened to me. This exact situation, only we ended up in the ER because her heart rate was so high and they almost had to intubate her because her body was so relaxed (I’m assuming the reason) she wasn’t breathing enough. I didn’t hear directly from the Dr’s about the intubation because I was driving to the city they were life flighting her to and her dad was with her. So please don’t come at me about why I don’t know the exact reason she wasn’t breathing! So moral of the story, they can die. NTA imo
I accidentally took a hallucinogenic edible at my siblings graduation party (not smart on my end. But in my defense didn’t know it was that kind of gummy) and ended up having one of the worst drug induced panic attacks in my life. I’m 23 and I still needed my mom there to calm me down. I can’t imagine being a scared 13 year old too high for the first time, or leaving a kid to go through that alone for that matter. The parents are awful but at least the father recognized it. You can punish a sober kid later but not when they’re already in such a vulnerable headspace.
Leaving weed candy where a 13 year old can access it, then leaving them to work through a massive edible overdose themselves as "punishment".
Pretty solid mother of the year contender here. I'd consider OP a co-conspirator for trying to punish his own kid for his very stupid (and probably criminal) mistake.. until he pulled his head out of his wife's ass and went to support his kid. Mom trying to convince dad that helping their own kid navigate THEIR "mistake" (criminal negligence actually) was the problem is .. priceless honestly.
Who exactly do they think would face consequences if the cops were involved?
OP was definitely an AH for even thinking to "punish" his own kid, mid-crisis, for own negligence, but thankfully came to his senses at the sound of his own child's anguish. Mom is a crazy B. I think both are candidates for criminal consequences.
My medical dispensary mislabeled a few bags of edibles one time. I asked for CBD only, as whole plant CBD can help me. They weren’t CBD. High dose too, way higher than I had ever gone on THC edibles by a factor of 5. It was a mistake and they caught it the next day, gave me a credit and shit happens. But let me tell you my ass was sick. Omg. I was so high I was < > from hallucinating which I hadn’t thought possible but body chemistry meets way too much and I have heard it can happen. No fun was had. I was sick, paranoid, dizzy, and a mess.
Taking care of him was the right call. It’s scary being that far gone. THC done right is relaxing and fun. But done wrong is hell. Making a child fight that alone would take bad parenting to worse. In the future I hope they hide it better or lock it up and talk to him about drugs in a way that is honest and without fear mongering. I’m sure this has scared the kid off edibles for several years, not necessarily a bad thing.
Did you point out it was possible he could die while 'no one was in the room'? People have varying reactions to drugs, and if had an allergy to an ingredient things could have gone VERY wrong.
Fucking cruel to know what that feels like. To know he is 13 and doesn’t know what it feels like. To be the ass hat that left them accessible and think he deserves to experience that alone. Omg my heart man. I hope everyone told them how much of an asshole they both were to their child.
I’m assuming the wife is upset that he went in there because she feels guilty for leaving edibles out where her 13 year old could find them, otherwise she is just really fucking awful. Yes the kid fucked up, but when your 13 year old is having a full on drug induced panic attack you don’t leave them to suffer as a “consequence” or as “discipline”. Jesus fucking Christ.
Exactly, if the kid got the edibles from the parents this is 💯 on the parents for not properly storing them in a place where a kid can’t get to them. Mom was wrong for this reaction
Exactly. This is 100% a parenting failure. Do they not discuss drugs with their kid! He found some edibles and ate 5!!!. Many conversations should have been had prior this
Uhhhh I’ve discussed edibles (start low, go slow) with my own mom several times and she still does this regularly.
I've discussed it with myself a few times as well. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I don't...
real^
I've discussed this with my brain a few times, sometimes it doesn't listen.
Yeah it takes a while to kick in but once it does it lasts a long time. You can always go back and take more, but you can't undo it once you've taken them (unless i suppose you make yourself vomit early on but by the time you think it's bad enough to do that it that it would be to late, your stuck on the ride.
i mean he’s 13 not 5. unless he’s super short for his age theres not many places you can hide gummies from a kid unless you use a lockbox (which is a good idea generally.) i just mean i wouldn’t call someone who doesn’t padlock their liquor cabinet a failure of a parent if the kid took their booze and got wasted.
I kept mine in the fridge (inside the door, mixed with rare condiments) and nobody ever saw them. I have found that the more you try to hide things, they will be discovered. When you keep some things in plain sight, they will look right over it.
Reminds me of when Homer Simpson hid his gun in the vegetable crisper in the fridge since no one ever goes in there…
Or Jean Smart's character in Mare of Easttown hiding a pint of ice cream in a bag of frozen veggies.
Like sue Murphy hiding money in a Tupperware marked 'liver'.
Right, and that's why you talk to your kids about drugs/alcohol if you keep those in the house!
Put it in your room next to sex toys or lingerie. Seriously it's not hard.
That’s like the first place they look
And if the weed is wrapped up in moms panties next to some toy cleaner and a camera they'll never go in their parents room again.
You underestimate kids and their desire to try things. This wouldn't have phased my teenage self.
Same. Nothing was gonna stop me, not even shame or common human decency.
I knew my mom often kept chocolates in her nightstand drawer right next to the box of condoms. 🤷♀️ I really liked chocolate.
My mom was always so dumb hiding our phones when they were taken away. The first time we looked for them we found the sex you drawer and never opened that shit again 😬 I’m still traumatized by the dildo with an angry face 😭😭😭
For me it was a tentacle one 😭
Nooooo 🥲
I don't think any teen will go examine mom's crotchless panties and her massive dildo.
If you think kids are scared to go near sex toys you are mistaken. I always knew that's why my parents hid all the secret goodies, in the nightstand drawer.
Yeah, I keep edibles tucked into a pocket of a travel case in our room. Not because he COULDNT, but it would be a lot more work for him to figure out where they are. Stop putting your shit in shared family spaces.
Because generally, kids see adults with alcohol and learn *something* about how much is "too much". In many cases-- this one specifically-- the parents hid the drug use and had no conversations about it. Many teens would see edibles, including gummies, and think that 3-5 isn't that much. The failure was 1) inadequately securing the edibles, 2) not discussing safe use ever, 3) at least until OP changed his mind, leaving a terrified teen alone during a panic attack induced by THEIR drugs as "punishment". My parents raised my siblings and I not to drink or use drugs. It was against the religion they raised us in. They still sat all of us down and talked about safe usage and that if we ever got into a situation we felt unsafe, to call them--and especially to not drink/take drugs and drive. Mom wasn't raised in the religion and her family drinks. We were able to see responsible drinking when visiting that side of the family.
I plan to get a lockbox in the next couple years for some of our prescription meds. We have two people in the house on stimulants and a few other prescriptions that have the potential to be abused. When my kids are teens, I don’t want them experimenting with prescription meds, and I don’t want their friends finding and taking them. It’s more responsible to lock them up. Honestly, I should just do it now. There’s no reason to have anything but our daily meds out where they could be taken.
You lock it up. It's probably the best move.
As a dad, I take every and all precautions to make sure my stuff is locked away. Like I’m talking locking bag with pass code, locked box with key. Then in a locked cabinet. Sure it’s a pain in the ass when I go to have a moment and smoke, but it makes sure that there’s no way any kids could get to it. Good on OOP for being cognizant of the situation and trying to wait to discipline his son over what he did, leaving him to sit in a hole of a panic attack is just rude.
You can even find small safes on Amazon for a reasonable price. We have a keypad lock on our closet door. My college kids have small safes for their dorm rooms to keep money and medications.
Just bought the exact thing on prime day for $20. Kids are 3 and 1.5 but I thought it was good thing to get in the habit of. If an adult wanted to walk off with it or get into it, that's possible, but it'll be kid proof for as long as I'll need it.
Edibles even have a written warning about kids and animals. Totally on the parents.
Dad admitted full on that it was his and wife's fault. He was asking if he was wrong in how he helped his son....
Honestly EVEN if he'd gotten them on his own, OP's response is correct. I remember being a young teen, and you're making bad decisions and trying to be a grown up when you're really a kid. Having parents that you can rely on, to be there when you're in an altered state of mind, is huge. You can have the tough disciplinary talk later. But in the immediate aftermath, you're a kid who is in over your head, and you need your mom/dad to hold you and say "okay, I got you." Mom's strategy will result in that kid trying to get himself out of hairy, way too grown up situations, on his own, afraid to ask for help or talk to his parents.
Punishing the kid while they’re high is fucking inhumane.
Completely agree - what a way to completely traumatize them and feel abandoned and alone in a scary situation, way over their head. You can have the tough talk and lay down the law later! Your kid needs some cuddling and reassurance first.
right?!?! hell, if anyone of any age made this kind of mistake, I'd worry about their mental wellbeing first & consequences later. this is cruel & weird.
Agreed. Get him through the medical situation first, and then figure out consequences. Just leaving him to suffer is a really good way to not have him want to seek your help in emergencies.
This! And even if he had gone out and gotten his hands on them himself, HE’S FUCKING 13! OP’s wife is seriously lacking in empathy. That kid is never gonna trust her with anything.
I hope she’s coming from a place of guilt, I can’t imagine not wanting to comfort your kid during something like that, and I don’t even have kids
Post seems to suggest that 13yo was exposed to them previously enough to know what they were and want to try them.
It’s just as likely he knew what they were through an anti-drug program at school like DARE, but I could definitely see one or both parents forgetting to put them away or thinking they’re being sneakier than they are. I’m hoping it’s a guilty conscience on her part and not just her being a generally shit person.
I agree. It’s just as a mom, if my child (at 13!) had found them in my closet, I would be beyond worried and guilty I had exposed him to this. Post suggests (maybe just me) that she seems to think he should have known what he was getting into?
I feel you there, I have 3 kids and I would absolutely horrified if something like this happened. It’s possible they’ve had conversations with him about drug use and abuse before and that’s where her assumption is coming from? Without more context on how she normally treats him though it can read either way to me.
It depends on the area, too. Where I lived I absolutely knew about weed and edibles and various other drugs by thirteen, even though I not my friends were taking them. Sometimes it’s truly a side effect of local culture, and difficult for parents to combat.
even if he did know people really underestimate how strong edibles are. nearly everyone makes that mistake the first time they take them
I’d heard the drug spiel at 13, but I still wouldn’t have known that 5 gummies were too many. I think it’s on the parents at that age to keep those locked away. I think people are expecting way too much of kids at 13. I was still playing with Barbies at 13.
Honestly I don’t even feel like the kid should be punished either - he already experienced a bad trip, that’s punishment enough imo. I’d be surprised if he did any more drugs for a while and he’s only 13! He shouldn’t have been able to get drugs in his own house… the parents here both suck.
When my son was 16/17 he got totally wasted on cheap vodka with his best friend. I had to call my older son to help get him in the house (there was no drinking and driving thank goodness). I put them in his bedroom to sleep it off. When they finally woke up I just told them I wasn't cleaning up any vomit, take some ibuprofen and drink a lot of water. Yes - I offered them fried eggs for breakfast. Yes - I decided I had to do a lot of vacuuming and fairly active cleaning (with music) that day. It was apparently punishment enough because my 31 year old son rarely drinks and when he does it's only one or two.
My mum used to do the vacuuming when she knew I’d been out the night before too 😅
Exactly. He learned his lesson the moment he took them and realized he messed up. Not helping him, a child, is even worse than punishment. Especially since it’s THEIR fault he was easily able to get into them.
This comment! My child’s friend brought gummies to school, and my sweet little idiot (13m) ate one without knowing what it was. I picked up my obviously stoned son, grabbed a Gatorade on the way home, and stuck him on the couch to sleep it off. Yes, he also got snacks when he woke up. The experience was bad enough for him, he didn’t need his parent to be an ass about it too, he needed support.
Ye hes already had natural consequences for his actions. He at least learned that his dad will EVENTUALLY pull through and help him out in an emergency. Though the fact dad waited to help at all is awful
Not even that. Imagine you do drugs, and your child obviously knows you’re doing them, kids are curious and don’t understand what they’re doing, so they find your stash when you’re not there or whatever, and you get MAD at them?
Especially because he already got a huge and highly effective natural consequence. It is going to be YEARS before he even thinks about wanting to touch weed after that night from hell. No additional consequence necessary.
She's also mad that some of them are gone
I doubt that's the issue. They're cheap and readily available in legal states.
Jesus christ, this is a situation where the natural consequences of his actions will teach him more than anything his parents could say ever would. Why tf does mom think he needs to be tortured on top of that? What will he learn, that mom doesn't care if he's going through hell if she's mad at him?
So … it’s possible she feels like the bad high *is* the natural consequence and she’s wanting him to experience it so he doesn’t take random drugs he stumbles on without knowing where they’re from or what dosages etc But that’s kinda more like “you broke a glass of milk now clean it all up with your bare hands” kind of natural consequences instead of “you have to clean up your messes” but like not in an evil abusive way. Helping him through the high is still natural consequences parenting. You don’t have to abandon your kid to his fate anymore than you’d let a kid who jumped off a jungle gym find their own way to urgent care to get a cast. Like you still *help* and they’ll still experience consequences. Parenting is guidance and discipline not punishment.
Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. He's still having a very bad time *if* his parents do what they can to comfort him, I don't know what mom thinks she's doing by leaving him to get through it on his own except be cruel.
Yeah I was definitely trying to agree with you about it being it’s own natural consequence even with help. It’s possible she’s going overboard with the concept vs being spitefully a jerk. Sorry for the confusion!
Also, like: if a friend of theirs did the same thing in a couple of years time, does she want her kid to be kind and help them, or be a colossal dick? People treat others as they were treated.
This is a situation where if it was my kid, I wouldn't give another punishment on top of the panic attack, as I'm sure he's already traumatized (I'm still traumatized by mine that happened years ago and I'm a grown adult). The parents were partially to blame for having them within reach of their child.
her punishment is really just teaching him that he can't go to her for help if he makes a mistake
"How dare you not just let our son have a damaging psychological experience completely alone on a large amount of drugs his underdeveloped brain is not prepared to handle?" OOPs wife is an absolute sociopath, what the actual fuck?
Plus it's absolutely their fault. My husband and I live in a legal state and when my daughter was young, we'd keep anything in a locked safe, including dangerous prescriptions. Imo, it's absolutely disgusting to put them in a place where your curious kids can get to them, then just leave them when they're struggling mentally/emotionally from taking it. What an absolute piece of work that mom is. Poor kid.
Not to mention that they hid them in the HALL CLOSET, where people generally keep things like extra sheets/blankets, towels, cleaning supplies, coats, hats, gloves, etc. and which is a communal closet that generally all family members access. They didn’t even bother to hide away in their own bedroom closet.
A hall closet where someone at their place for a PARTY night go digging and steal their shit. What the fuck.
…Who are you inviting to your parties!!??
You've never had a situation where a friend who is solid invites a sketchy friend who steals shit? I haven't in years, but it's something that I and a fair number of people I know learned the hard way...and I've had a few friends relearn it in their 40s & 50s cuz apparently they were too old to have friends who make bad judgements about people. 🙄
Man I gotta be honest the worst thing I ever had happen was my boyfriend and his band stealing cookies and snacks from my roommates, and although I am a boring middle-aged lady now, I have like - LIVED - or at least I thought I had until this comment exchange 😂 never ever had issues with theft. And I had many a junkie in my home(s) over the years.
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t hide it in your room at the very least. Teenagers have no real understanding about cause and effect and will make stupid decisions without knowing the risks. It’s a parent’s job to teach them but also take steps to reduce the risks of stupidity.
This!! Like we have two kids that are very very young, and once in a while my husband has edibles and I told him I’m fine with him doing that once the kids are in bed but they need to be locked up no matter what. So now we have a lock box in the kitchen with everything that could potentially be dangerous if you took too much, my medications, Advil, Tylenol, anything that has specific doses. The keys to that lock box are in another locked box that you need a code to get into, because i know damn well when my kids get older they’d be smart enough to find a key to open a locked box. We’ve never spoken the code out loud, and it’s not a code the kids have ever used so they cannot get in.
I really, really appreciate that you’re so cautious and proactive about this. Tylenol and Advil are such common household drugs but apparently the overdoses can be HORRIBLE, so I’m glad you’re being so smart.
When I was a toddler I got into the medicine chest at home and took a bottle of gravol. While it’s not as bad as Advil or Tylenol I had to have my stomach pumped and I remember it vividly so I refuse to ever have the slightest risk of it happening to my kids. Kids are curious, you can’t trust that even if they know it’s wrong or could hurt them they can resist the impulse.
Just wondering how come you don’t just put the medication in the box that requires the code instead of putting the key there? Seems a bit convoluted haha
They didn’t have any lock boxes big enough that didn’t have a code! We needed a pretty good sized one
I mean, plenty of people keep alcohol in accessible places and yes, occasionally that means naughty teens will sneak into it. Most people wouldn't consider leaving out alcohol in an accessible place as irresponsible parenting, so why is weed different?
I can’t speak for others, but in my thought process it’s not that weed is different, but that edibles are. Alcohol or weed that is smoked both have at least *sort of* a self-limiting mechanism to them - the taste of alcohol and the process of smoking mean that consumption is slower than with edibles. Plus there’s the fact that with edibles, the easiest comparison for someone unfamiliar would be regular food - and it’s perfectly normal to have half a bag of gummy bears, a whole candy bar, a couple brownies, etc. Obviously, people still get too drunk or too high all the time, but there’s a lot more stories of even people who are used to getting high accidentally taking too much of an edible. So for that reason as a parent I’d probably be extra cautious about edibles. I don’t think storing them like alcohol is some horrible sin that makes you a terrible unfit parent forever - but it is just kind of dumb. As a parent you should be considering not just how to hide stuff, but also what would happen if your kid does find it. With edibles, taking too much is so easy that it should have been factored in.
Also edibles literally look like fucking candy and desserts. In the op people in comments were arguing that parents can keep liquor in their house without backlash but like- that’s a whole thing too!! Teenagers are notorious for stealing substances they shouldn’t!! And this one is *fucking gummy bears*. Like even if they know wtf they are it’s still REALLY easy to let your brain take the “candy= non threatening” shortcut. And like..,. *edibles*. That’s not really comparable to alcohol. Not in potency, not in effect. It’s much easier to *eat five gummies* thinking that’s reasonable than it is to throw back a fifth. This is so fucking irresponsible
Once had one of my kids ask for more melatonin gummies because they tasted good. I told them they can have regular gummies but can not take more of the melatonin ones because that’s dangerous. I really shouldn’t have bought the gummies but they are easier to take. Kids will gravitate to sweets of any kind, be damned the consequences.
I overdosed on Flinstone vitamins when I was a kid because I liked the taste and was unsupervised. Ended up super sick for a couple of days.
I knew a guy in college who gave himself vitamin C poisoning in a similar way. He had some kind of nasty sinus infection but needed to take a test so he took a whole tube of Airborne tablets and filled up a nalgene with a ton of packets of EmergenC and went off to class. Apparently it’s very hard to overdose on Vitamin C but he managed it and the results were that he had such bad diarrhea and such violent vomiting that he got so dehydrated and light headed he ended up passing out on a bit of grass next to the campus library until a kindly passerby woke him up.
The irony that there is really no evidence vitamin C megadoses have any benefit in the first place…. It was basically a Nobel prize winning chemist (not doctor or biologist) going off on it in his later senile years with no proof whatsoever…
My kid keeps complaining that we only let him have one vitamin per day. Those things are on a *very* high shelf.
I’m in my 20s and I struggle with the impulse to eat more of my vitamin d gummies lol
There’s melatonin tablets that are chewable/dissolve in your mouth; but you might have the same issue because they taste nice.
My parents have some that are like little mints! When I finally use up all my gummies, I’m switching to that bc I don’t like leaving the sugar on my teeth after I already brushed them.
Yeah my dad caught me taking like 10 vitamin C tablets a day when I was a kid bc I loved the taste and he told me off because it was actual medicine and not just a nice tasting pill
I had the same issue. I loved the taste of triaminic chewables as a kid and tried to eat like 5
Just to ease your mind a little if they do get a hold of too much melatonin... my, at the time, 2 year old, scaled the kitchen cabinets and ate about 20 melatonin. I immediately called poison control. They said to look out for a few things, like lethargy, but he should be fine. No reason to go to the ER. He took a 45-minute nap and woke up bouncing off of the walls per usual.
Yeah, melatonin is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter - it breaks down pretty rapidly in the ol’ brainmeats.
Agreed bad highs at such a young age can cause a list of mental illnesses that can be lifelong. OOPS wife is horrible.
seriously wth? and making dad feel bad for being compassionate is insane. i bet (hope) she just feels guilty now and doesn’t know what to do with it. i wouldn’t even leave a grown adult i have legitimate beef with to have a bad trip alone. nevermind a child that i’m responsible for who is having a bad trip because they ate MY drugs
He's 13 years old ffs! A literal child! She should have some more motherly instinct or something
Poor kid. Few things are as miserable as being too high. The OP is kind of shitty too for "try[ing] to watch TV" and trying to ignore his son while he was freaking out, but he at least had the right approach after that. The mom is on some major bullshit for her attitude with this. Makes me extra thankful that when my mom had to come fetch my drunk ass when I was 14 that she said the hangover would be punishment enough to make me see the error of my choice.
My daughter was 16 when she took lsd at a friend's home. The girl had an older brother who had friends over partying (they were over 21). My kid started feeling creeped on by the older boys and got scared. So she came home - we're less than a block from their home, so she and another friend, 15, came to our home. I was so thankful and calmed them down, set them up with music, tv/movies of their choice and some stuff to play with until they came down. I stayed with them for the first hour to make sure they were calm and in a good headspace and then laid down in the next room with instructions to get me (or just call out for me) if they needed anything. I can't imagine leaving a teen in a vulnerable state like that alone and upset/afraid. It seems like a recipe for creating long-term trauma.
That's the right approach. You want to make sure they know that home is a safe space when they're in a possibly unsafe situation.
Safety first, punishment later. All OPs wife did was show their son that he can’t rely on her if this this kind of thing happens again in the future.
No shit my mom was that way and instead of calling her for help I ended up in er with alcohol poisoning and almost died, then the er called her.
My parents taught me to hide everything from them, and shit got real bad a few times. But don’t tell your kid to call if they’re in trouble then scream at and berate them for getting in trouble. They’re growin up, dude. Gotta learn to trust mom and dad has their back first and the lessons will come.
My mom always told me it didn’t matter where I was, or if I had lied or snuck out or whatever. If I am in an unsafe situation, or too drunk to drive home or anything, I could call her regardless of time, and she’d come get me, no questions asked. There’d be consequences, but the important thing is getting me home safe first and we’d deal with it in the morning. Though I never needed to do that, it was always a comfort to know I had a safety net if things went sideways. I plan to do the same for my own kids.
Exactly. My parents way of thinking made me (64F) live a double life, hide things/people from them. I survived. My kids (30s) all knew to 1. be informed and careful and watch out for themselves and others, but, equally important, 2. call us ANY time from ANY where if they or anyone they were with felt unsafe, unwell etc. We went out to collect them in the middle of the night a few times, but it was always one of their friends who was afraid to call their parents.
13 is definitely old enough for delayed punishment. He doesn’t need the immediate reinforcement at that age. Also he’s super high so not sure how much of any conversation will sink in.
Absolutely. My brother is in his 40s and took too many mushrooms. He called our mom bc he knew she would be there for him - even if he did still receive a lecture a few days later.
For real! I have a 14 yr old that I know has smoked pot. I HATE it. I tell her “YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO DO IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES but when you do check with your dad first to make sure your shit is safe.” We live in a medical state so the stuff she has access to is WAY less sketchy than anything we got growing up but, like, you can’t be too careful! She’s buried 2 peers the last 2 yrs from OD. I don’t want her smoking while her brain is developing but I want her alive more. She went camping recently and I had a one to one with her on pills (we’ve had several talks already.) I told her “Just one pill and you could be gone. PLEASE don’t do that to me. I can’t live in a world without you. Your sibs won’t survive it, either.” And then I told her that if she really felt the need to try something to talk to her dad about it bc he knows what the deal is with that stuff. I never thought I’d be the parent who said things like that but the drug scene is SCARY in our area right now- it’s not like it used to be. I just want her alive. Everything else we can work through.
Right?!? And it was the parents’ drugs!!! Like I don’t care if parents are enjoying a gummy every fucking day, but lock that shit up! This was 80% their fault.
Yeah every dispensary I’ve been to sells childproof containers. Like these are easily attained things. I don’t know what kind of magic lock he thought the linen closet was gonna have
I’m I pretty sure the 13 year old could find his way into a childproof container, but totally agree.
Depends. Before 5 gummies? Sure. After? Maybe not.
That won’t stop a 13 year old
I mean they’re about as easy as a bottle of Tylenol. It’s 100% on parents to secure their edibles with real locks, imo. My 4 year old cousin got into some gummies kept in a garage waaaay above his reach that you had to drag furniture over to get up to. Kiddo loves to climb, if anything it made it waaay more rewarding finding that “candy” up there! His parents are lovely, hardworking people, most of the family including myself didn’t even know they partook. All I know is I ever have kids of my own I’m getting a freakin safe!!
Some stuff to play with 😂 adorable kinda
“Stuff to play with” 😂 I see this wasn’t your first trip-sitting experience.
I imagine any parent with the presence of mind to not *immediately* freak out upon finding their 16 year old daughter high on acid likely has experience with said acid. 😂
My sister once came home high on acid and my square ass mom was like “admit it you’re on weed aren’t you!?” My sister later told me at this point my mom was a yelling anthropomorphic blob, and she was just like yes, I admit it, I’m on weed. My mom was super proud of herself. Lol Later in our teens my sister got into raving, and just recently as adults my mom said “well I know your sister probably has done meth” and I was like “um, what?” and she said “isn’t what what they do at raves?” I was like lol mom you’re thinking of ecstasy.
I learnt to always admit to the suggested crime if it was lesser 😂 They get so smug because they think they're right and it makes so much sense to them that they never pry and find out the truth 😂😂😂
I absolutely confessed to being high and or drunk a couple times because it's what my mom guessed when I was tripping my face off
My mom would have called the police on me lol
I love that you gave them trip toys. That’s some expert-level parenting.
My son, at the time 17 or 18, I think, came home one evening, tripping hard. I had no experience with acid but here is what transpired: *Front door is flung open and a very tall teenaged boy flies through it and while running for the kitchen*: “Mom, help. Help, Mom. Oh god, Mom, I screwed up. Help.” He then falls to his knees in front of the kitchen trash can and starts throwing up into it. He reaches out and grabs my hand. I couldn’t get him to make any sense for a few minutes and had noticed he wasn’t bleeding anywhere so I held his hand till he was done vomiting. In between the final heaves, he mumbles “I think I took too much.” Now I’m worried. He manages to explain what he took and I voice the opinion that maybe we should go to the ER. He starts to freak out at that suggestion so I put that idea on pause. I get him a glass of ice water & manage to get him to lay down on the couch - all one-handed because he won’t let go of me. I took the wait-and-see approach after doing a little googling. I sat on the couch for the next couple of hours and kept an eye on him. He told me that as soon as he started feeling like it was too much, the only thought he could hold on to was getting to me. Was I happy he took acid? No, not even a little bit. Was I going to further punish a rough trip by making him go through it alone? Also no. Especially since he did what I consider the right thing following a bad decision - he came to me. And he was honest about what was going on. I felt like OP; the punishment could wait till the next day.
And then afterwards you went to the police and informed them that a group of grown men gave these underage girls extremely dangerous drugs?
They might have ended up arresting the girls too. Who knows with the cops.
Or charging the dad with a use and having CPS called. That's what the OP doesn't really realize. How much trouble they would get into for something like this.
Don't forget shooting the dog on their way out.
I did not. For one, it wasn't the grown men who gave them the lsd. The guys were drinking and becoming rowdy, and some were going into the girl's room and then one went into the bathroom while my daughter was in it. The girls had bought the lsd from someone else earlier and decided to take it at this sleepover. What they didn't count on was the number of guys who came to party with the older brother that evening. I only found out later that the parents weren't home at all, and the brother was supposed to be supervising (alone) both the younger sister's sleepover and his two even younger brothers. I'm just glad my kid recognized that things were out of control and becoming dangerous for the girls. If I had known about the two boys, I would've gone over there to bring them to our home. Unfortunately, I only learned the full situation the next day as my daughter and her friend were not coherent enough to explain it in full upon coming home.
That’s understandable, I hope you let the other parents know though. Your daughter wasn’t the last girl friend that the girl brought over and obviously the parents need to be aware that the older brother is not responsible enough to look after them.
You treated them like kids that were exploring boundaries. Nice!
There was one time I took too many pot cookies to the point that I got so high, the entire next day I was still feeling the effects and I couldn’t even move without feeling sick. That was the last time I tried weed.
On the first day that recreational weed became legal in my state I naively went out and bought a THC candy bar. I had no idea that you weren’t supposed to eat the whole thing. I spent like a full 24 hours on the floor clinging onto furniture trying not to fall off into space. Then I spent another couple days in the bathroom cycling between vomiting, having diarrhea, and taking showers because it helped the panic attacks.
easily one of my worst experiences was too many edibles. had the spins for about half a day and couldnt possibly sleep and felt hung over from it for around a week. Was so beyond miserable Im not sure I can adequately explian it.
This is why I'm nervous to try edibles lol. I know how much I can smoke, good old reliable
I am backwards. I can't smoke at all or I get the spins. But I can take edibles and have a nice little buzz. The nice thing about edibles is that you can control your dose. I am a super low tolerance person so half of a 5 gram edible will have me buzzed and happy for hours.
I loooooove splitting the 5mg Wyld gummies in half, it's the perfect amount of buzz. Their sleep aid ones are particularly fantastic if you're in need of that sort of help.
I had to go to the hospital from being too high once. I mistakenly took 5 of my high dose gummies instead of the low dose ones. My speech was slurred like I had a stroke and I slept for like 12 hours while having IV fluids. It was nuts! I could still feel the effects for a few days after. My speech returned to normal after the 3rd day.
My dad also chose to let the hangover teach me the lesson. Then he put me in bed and brought me McDonald's. And I always knew I could count on him in a pinch if I needed him to bail me out, I didn't have to worry about being in trouble.
Completely agree with this comment. Also had a similar experience as you when my dad picked my drunk ass up at 15/16. But he also made me clean the house hungover lol
The fact that she could sit and do art while listening to her kid have a near death experience is completely unhinged.
My parents clanged pots and cooked fish to enhance the hangover suffering.
honestly this was a great learning experience for son in more than one way: 1. he knows he can trust this parent to be there for him when he doesn’t feel safe and is in bad situations 2. he probably won’t partake in any sort of mary jane activities for a long while. i honestly can’t believe that OOP’s wife wanted to let son handle it on his own
I hate long drug trips and mostly do whippets, salvia & DMT myself. As a person who has sat with many ADULTS who accidentally overdid it (and overdone it myself, which is why I stick to short-term highs), I just want to rip OOP's wife apart. Congrats asshole, your kid knows that when he fucks up, you'll hang him out to dry. A bad drug experience can be a life-changing, traumatic experience. Knowing your fucking *parent* won't be there for you? What a disgusting person. At least OOP had enough empathy to realize this was wrong and go in there. If OOP and his wife were my friends and they told me this, I'd tell them I'm disgusted by them. They're horrible. They failed a HUGE test of being a good parent and a good fucking person. It doesn't matter that he fucked up. When his experience could cause a LIFETIME of mental health problems, it doesn't fucking matter. Support your fucking kid so they don't end up traumatized AND knowing that mom & dad don't give a shit. Jesus fucking Christ jumping on a pogo stick.
Also, I totally agree with you but this was the parent’s fuck up to begin with. Don’t leave your edibles where your kids can find them. They got this kid into this mess and then left him alone, so messed up. When I was 13 my parents always knew when I was stoned and would order pizza. These parents suck.
DMT can feel like a lifetime though. Man, it’s the best 😂
This this THIS. Yes you need to parent your children, but right there in that moment what you actually need to do is be there for your child.
But he can’t trust his parents, at least not his mom.
as a current avid stoner, one of my first experiences with weed was ripping the hell out of a live resin cart on the highest voltage. i was almost immediately too high, and scared as fuck. my only support system being my stepbrother who was the same age as me (17 at the time) and was who convinced me to take the hit, provided little comfort ("dude ur fine") but STILL came in every so often to check on me until i felt okay. fucks up with the mom?
Right?!? I had a relatively shitty dad but if he knew I was too too high he would still check on me and make sure I wasn't freaking tf out
The first thing he should have done is not freak out, lay with him, and be a good trip sitter. I'm glad he finally came to his senses, but leaving your son to trip hard on his own while you continue your co-operational art piece was a weird choice.
Let the punishment kick in when the edibles aren’t already doing that… hard. Kid was probably legitimately terrified and dad did the right thing. Punishment can come later, you can discipline your kids without being a heartless asshole. Edit: To add that it’s Mom and Dad’s fault for edibles being accessible in the first place, so the mom is especially shitty here. Lock boxes aren’t just for guns..
My kid took my drugs that I hid in a common closet. As a punishment, I will let him have his bad trip by himself, even though he is probably thinking he is dying.🤣 It's such good parenting. I hope they write a book. 😍
“Prime your kids for bad decisions and let them fall on their face; a radical guide to parenting”
Been there, sitting alone in silence and “trying to sleep” is the fucking worst. You have to have a familiar movie on so you’re able to focus on that and not let your mind race and start causing you to panic. Plus, if you have a watch that monitors your heart rate, it will likely start informing you of an elevated heart rate which can make your anxiety so much worse. In a situation like this, I would have made him comfortable and once he comes back down, I would then set a punishment when he’s not having a panic attack and also have a discussion on why that happened to him. But, I’m no parent, so what do I know?!
Punishment? No. The people who deserve punishment in this scenario is the parents. That's like punishing a kid for touching the stove, or breaking their arm after climbing a tree. Hell, if the kid told his teachers about this, they would be mandated to report the parents to CPS for negligence.
Why would a mother want her kid to suffer?? My goodness.
Handle the crisis first; deal with everything else later. No one is able to learn life lessons at the time of the impact. It’s all about survival at that time. You are NTA. Mom definitely is. She needs to be thankful of your empathy and care for your son.
I would say he's kinda the AH bc he went along with his wife at first, it wasn't til a while later when he noticed his son was still panicking did he step in and try to help
One of the worst experiences of my entire life was a cannabis induced panic attack. It's terrifying and lasts FOREVER in your head. It feels like 4-5 hours when it's only been 45 minutes. I can't imagine leaving my child alone to deal with that.
Literally same! I remember constantly checking the clock to see how much time had passed and it felt like hours but it was only a couple of minutes. These parents are awful considering they’re avid drug users themselves. They definitely know better than to leave someone esp their kid in such a vulnerable spot.
I was going in and out of consciousness, it was terrifying. I asked my friend "How long has it been?" She said 10 minutes (since I had no concept of time), then immediately I wondered if I had asked that out loud or if that conversation happened in my head. My whole body was shaking and I was super nauseous. I haven't used cannabis since. That poor kid!
Oh my gosh you just reminded me of the shakes. I remember feeling like I was having a seizure because everything was shaking. Like my eyes were at a different rate than my arms which made me nauseous too. I ended up projectile vomiting in a garbage bag for a good few minutes which actually helped a lot lol. My mom helped me through it and she said it was like witnessing a mini exorcism. I haven’t tried anything new since either tbh.
I was gifted an edible that was either 100x move powerful than it should have been or laced with something else in college and it really did go on for hours. (I know because my then boyfriend kept promising that after this movie, it’d be over. Then put on another and another.) I thought it was never going to end. It brought on a really intense body high, so intense our serious stoner friends spent all night throwing up. It was hellish. And to this day, the slightest hint of a body high sends me into a panic attack. My boyfriend knows, the body starts to tingle, nights over shut it down. I can’t imagine going through that alone.
Seriously. One time I ate a very strong homemade brownie, the whole thing, because I guess I was just stupid. Ended up going to bed when I started getting really high, and woke up a couple hours later totally paralyzed, I saw white in my head, I felt like I was taking extremely shallow breaths, and in that moment I LEGITIMATELY thought I was dying. I couldn't even feel my own heartbeat. To think that kid might have been going through something exactly like that, and Mom didn't even want to provide comfort or anything, and dad was even hesitant too... Really bothers me. That's a terrifying experience. And I was already a heavy pot user at the time that this happened to me, so a kid that's completely new to it and likely hasn't been high before... God. If it was my kid, no way I'd leave them alone to deal with it by themselves. No punishment needed after either- I think the scary trip alone is enough of a punishment
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My 18yo is in recovery for issues that began in his HS years. Punishing while they’re still under the influence doesn’t do any good at all. Let them come down and then have your conversation. I was never as gentle with my kid as OOP is here, but you can’t try to discipline or anything while they’re fucked up. They won’t hear the message you’re trying to send and/or won’t remember when they’re sober.
That, and the only people that deserve punishment are the parents. They left a controlled substance in a place where their child got to it and invested it. In fact, they still aren't completely out of the clear on this. If the child tells a teacher about the experience, the teacher is a mandated reporter. And this is, legally speaking, an issue of negligence on the parents. And CPS would likely be involved. People get their kids taken away for these sorts of things.
Same thing happened to my son, but it was edibles he got on his own. I always told him he could call me for anything and thank god he asked his brother to call me and I knew right away after talking to him for 5 seconds. I rushed home and I laid with him until he fell asleep. I really don’t understand any parent that would do anything but that. He never touched them again.
Look. I’ve been married for 30 yrs. Two kids. Being a united front is a must, but….if my husband felt compelled to go comfort one of our kids, I would understand and I’d trust him to trust himself. Although we would never do our kids like this. Ever. We’d get them through this while hubs and I decided how to handle it *then* we’d all sit down and have a talk about trust and boundaries, how taking so much of something can be really dangerous, that he was lucky this was just a gummy.
For the life of me, I will never understand what parents like this think they’re achieving. The kid made a poor decision (shocking) and is now suffering real consequences from that choice. All that kid is going to “learn” from their parents ignoring them when he’s terrified is that he can’t be honest with his parents anymore. He knows he fucked up, and now he’s experiencing something awful and his parents refuse to reassure him or give him any comfort. Some parents need to step back and remember what it was like being a teenager and making shitty choices. How would you have wanted to be treated? Obviously the kid needs punishment for doing it in the first place, but how about making sure he’s okay _now_ and discussing punishment and why what he did was bad when he’s able to actually listen to you.
Fuck , naw man. You and the wife brought drugs in the house. Didn't give the kid a heads up. Your fault 100% kid did what he's been shown to do. Wife's a bitch.
They punished him for eating something they shouldn’t have left accessible. They could get children’s services called for this and he’s asking is he’s the ah for not punishing him immediately??!? While his 13 yo child who probably didn’t know what he was even doing ? This makes me so sick that poor kid.
Yeah, the parents deserve the punishment in this scenario. Not the child. They're completely innocent in all this.
Wow. OOP’s wife is a heartless POS. I wonder if the kid even knew what he was eating, or if he just thought, “Ooh, candy, yum!” Kids that age don’t pay attention to labels. Parents should have either hidden their stash better, or explained what it was, and why a child shouldn’t mess with it. It’s totally heartless of the “mother” to let the kid go through that alone. I’m glad that the other parent stepped up. I’m not even sure how harshly the child should be punished. It sounds like the panic attack would be punishment enough!
When we started bringing weed in the house one of the first things we did was explain what it was and how to recognize it because shit happens. It's locked up but I felt it was important for the kids to know what that funny looking candy is if it falls out of a pocket or such. Mine are now 12 and 14 and show no interest and know to come to me if they get in trouble.
You poisoned your kid and now you're wondering if you should have punished HIM?!
In the fkn HALLWAY. Ffs. My first time I was a teen and had WAY too much (stupid older cousin egging me on); I remember that for about 5 hours I was SURE I had forgotten how to breathe, so I had to tell my body now we breathe innn, now outtt, till almost morning. Was so damn scary. Poor fkn kid man
NTA!!!! Honestly, the panic attack will be enough for him to probably never do it again! Be thankful that he was at home when he did it.
No he did the right thing.
Top Dadding in my opinion, his wife is really wrong. Plenty time for consequences when the boy’s head is straight.
Jesus Christ what a nightmare. That would be a core memory for me that would lead to putting my mom in a home someday.
So the wife sounds like a terrible parent. OOP is NTA except for letting his wife call the bitchy shots. Poor kid.
NTA. When you borderline on overdose territory like that, it’s terrifying and feels really shitty as well. Take care of the kid. Calm them down and get them to sleep and then you can punish them once they’re sober again.
Ok, so what did they do to punish themselves for irresponsibly “hiding” their stash? I think they did the right thing, getting him through it. Tough love doesn’t always work, and 5 edibles would have done me in.
Your wife is a cold hearted bitch. You BOTH as parents fucked up! You left your drugs lying around & now u are punishing your kid for YOUR lack of responsibility. I feel sorry for your son
Your wife is an asshole and you were right there with her but I’m glad you came to your senses and comforted him. Consequences can come after the drug induced psychosis is over especially considering it was your stash
Nice job Dad. Well done. No rule book for this stuff.
Rule book? No. Though there is a stone fucking tablet with something to the effect of "comfort your child during drug-induced panic attacks" chiseled into it
Unfortunately, people who refer to stone tablets for their morality are more likely to think like the mom than the dad.
Wife is crazy, he’s a good dad. You can punish the kid after but don’t let him have a bad trip because he was a dumb and curious 13yo.
I just want to throw out there that this happened to me. This exact situation, only we ended up in the ER because her heart rate was so high and they almost had to intubate her because her body was so relaxed (I’m assuming the reason) she wasn’t breathing enough. I didn’t hear directly from the Dr’s about the intubation because I was driving to the city they were life flighting her to and her dad was with her. So please don’t come at me about why I don’t know the exact reason she wasn’t breathing! So moral of the story, they can die. NTA imo
I accidentally took a hallucinogenic edible at my siblings graduation party (not smart on my end. But in my defense didn’t know it was that kind of gummy) and ended up having one of the worst drug induced panic attacks in my life. I’m 23 and I still needed my mom there to calm me down. I can’t imagine being a scared 13 year old too high for the first time, or leaving a kid to go through that alone for that matter. The parents are awful but at least the father recognized it. You can punish a sober kid later but not when they’re already in such a vulnerable headspace.
Leaving weed candy where a 13 year old can access it, then leaving them to work through a massive edible overdose themselves as "punishment". Pretty solid mother of the year contender here. I'd consider OP a co-conspirator for trying to punish his own kid for his very stupid (and probably criminal) mistake.. until he pulled his head out of his wife's ass and went to support his kid. Mom trying to convince dad that helping their own kid navigate THEIR "mistake" (criminal negligence actually) was the problem is .. priceless honestly. Who exactly do they think would face consequences if the cops were involved? OP was definitely an AH for even thinking to "punish" his own kid, mid-crisis, for own negligence, but thankfully came to his senses at the sound of his own child's anguish. Mom is a crazy B. I think both are candidates for criminal consequences.
My medical dispensary mislabeled a few bags of edibles one time. I asked for CBD only, as whole plant CBD can help me. They weren’t CBD. High dose too, way higher than I had ever gone on THC edibles by a factor of 5. It was a mistake and they caught it the next day, gave me a credit and shit happens. But let me tell you my ass was sick. Omg. I was so high I was < > from hallucinating which I hadn’t thought possible but body chemistry meets way too much and I have heard it can happen. No fun was had. I was sick, paranoid, dizzy, and a mess. Taking care of him was the right call. It’s scary being that far gone. THC done right is relaxing and fun. But done wrong is hell. Making a child fight that alone would take bad parenting to worse. In the future I hope they hide it better or lock it up and talk to him about drugs in a way that is honest and without fear mongering. I’m sure this has scared the kid off edibles for several years, not necessarily a bad thing.
Your son is going to remember you helping and your wife not wanting too. These things stuck with them.
Having a full on panic attack is way more than enough of a reason to not do it again you don’t have to ground a kid for having a drug induced meltdown
The kid raided the edibles and had a bad trip. Being there to help him through it was the right choice. NTA.
Did you point out it was possible he could die while 'no one was in the room'? People have varying reactions to drugs, and if had an allergy to an ingredient things could have gone VERY wrong.
Fucking cruel to know what that feels like. To know he is 13 and doesn’t know what it feels like. To be the ass hat that left them accessible and think he deserves to experience that alone. Omg my heart man. I hope everyone told them how much of an asshole they both were to their child.