My wife left our one-year-old home alone for the most confusing reason

"Where does she draw the line when it comes to leaving him?"

Finding the time to exercise as a new mum can be hard. You can't just pop to an exercise class or run out the door like you did pre-kid, which is why one mum chose to let her baby nap alone in her house while she took a quick jog around the block. 

But her decision didn't go down well with her husband, who caught her coming home from her run. 

She was left scrambling to justify her actions, and completely red-faced, and not just because she'd gotten on a sweat. 

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Image: Supplied / IStock

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"It's no different to being in the backyard"

According to the dad, who took to Reddit to vent, "Our son is barely one. I came home from work, and my wife was just getting back from a run, at which point I noticed our son sleeping in the back room. When I asked her about it, she got defensive and said, 'It was only a couple of kilometres, and I never got far away from the house'."

"I don't think this is safe, so I got mad at her, and the whole thing escalated into a fight where I told her what she did wasn't safe. Now she's mad at me, thinks I'm being a judgmental ass, and doesn't want to talk. She thinks it's no different than being outside in the backyard while he's napping. So what's the deal? AITA?"

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In an update to his original post, the dad mentioned that they own a running pram and a treadmill, so she had other options than to leave their son alone.

He also noted that he is on dad-duty evening, "and she is free to get out of the house and do whatever."

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"Where does she draw the line?"

The community swiftly weighed in on the mum's choice. 

"I'm sorry... your wife did what now?" one shocked reader wrote. "There is indeed a difference between hanging in the backyard and going out for a run. That difference has roughly a two-kilometre radius."

"Seriously, your wife is so beyond in the wrong. If my Significant Other did this, I don't know if I could trust them again," said a second. "I'd be so worried if I'm not there, is she there or did she leave him again? What if she decides to go to the store next or run some errands? Where does she draw the line when it comes to leaving him alone? What your wife did was a crime, and you're lucky one of your neighbours didn't see her leaving him alone and calling the cops on her. This could have gone so much differently with CPS getting involved and your child getting taken away..."

A third person added: "I need time for myself and exercise, which is important, but she was 100 percent being a bad parent here. Your son isn't even a toddler yet and is way too young to be at home by himself. Literally, anything could have happened, so yeah, your wife was being totally irresponsible in this case."

The two had a heart-to-heart

Eventually, the couple had a frank conversation about it, and the mum "ended up breaking down and crying for a while."

"She apologised and said it was a one-time mistake," the dad updated the group.

"She explained to me that she was excited to try some new running shoes and didn't think about how dangerous it all was since he was napping. That being said, I'm going to continue to provide her with opportunities galore for space and time outside of the home to make sure nothing like this ever happens again."

"Mental health is no joke," he concluded.

Originally published as My wife left our one-year-old home alone for the most confusing reason