A man has taken to Reddit to pose a delicate question to the masses: should he be responsible for purchasing a personal item — in this case, a maxi pad — for his younger sister's friend? The now-viral post in the "Am I the A**hole" (AITA) forum has only been up around nine hours and already has nearly 14,000 upvotes and 5,600 comments.
The 18-year-old Redditor known on the thread as u/Few-Suggestion2380 explained what happened when he picked up his sister and her friend from school, saying he noticed a "red stain" on the 12-year-old girl's skirt on the way to ballet class.
Nemours Children's Health states that, though the range for a first period is between 10-15 years old, the average age is 12 and it may come at any unexpected time which could cause distress if not properly addressed.
The man explained that the girl began to cry which prompted his sister to ask for a trip to the pharmacy for sanitary napkins. "I didn't want to do that. As an adult man, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to get involved on such an intimate thing for a girl I am not even related to," the man wrote. "I asked her if she could call her mom but she said that her mom was working and couldn't respond."
He continued by describing how he handled the situation. "I decided that the best course of action was to take them to their ballet class, where there would be a lot of women that could help. I told her to sit over her backpack so she wouldn't ruin my car. I left them at the class and that was it."
His girlfriend was "really angry," he said. Though, he felt his reaction was "logical." A slew of Redditors chimed in to back the girls up, including the top comment which listed multiple ways he could've handled things better — such as a call to his girlfriend for her help. The comment garnered over 40,000 upvotes at the time of this post.
"He was responsible for these kids and he didn't look after them when they needed an adult," u/robot428 wrote.
"Every woman remembers her first period, and when she got it, and who was around to help her when she did," u/Cunninglinguist87 commented, adding,"like basically it boils down to a little girl needed help, and he had the power to help, and just opted not to. Huge YTA."
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