Did I overreact?

Bennifred

I'm amazed that your grandparents "didn't want to worry you" with a phone call, especially when it got past 5 o'clock. Did they think you wouldn't be worried when they didn't bring him home at the usual time? You must have been worried sick!

I don't think you over-reacted to the situation at all - I would find it difficult to trust that they wouldn't mishandle another situation because they thought that they knew better than you.

TheEffect

They're human, and made a mistake. Have a chat with them to ensure they understand they made a bad decision, advise them what to do in the future, and get on with your life.

Accidents happen. Adults make mistakes. It's happened now, and you being angry and limiting when they can see your child is not going to do anything but hurt them and your child.

Go have a chat with them, be adults, put things right, and get on with your life. After all, I'm guessing they didn't do such a bad job previously as you are here to tell this story.

notanewuser

TheEffect wrote: »

They're human, and made a mistake. Have a chat with them to ensure they understand they made a bad decision, advise them what to do in the future, and get on with your life.

Accidents happen. Adults make mistakes. It's happened now, and you being angry and limiting when they can see your child is not going to do anything but hurt them and your child.

Go have a chat with them, be adults, put things right, and get on with your life. After all, I'm guessing they didn't do such a bad job previously as you are here to tell this story.

How do you know that the OP's grandparents had anything to do with her upbringing?

System

Yes they should have contacted you and yes they deserved the tongue lashing you gave them but no I wouldn't stop them having your son.

At the end of the day, they took him out because they love him and care for him and the more love and care a child gets the better. The more contact he has with people who love him is important too.

Your son had an accident. My one son particularly practically lived at the hospital as he was little because he was so accident prone but I wasn't negligent I just didn't have eyes at the back of my head.

Are your Grandparents competent to look after him? If they are, then back down and let them take him out but make it doubly clear that if there are any problems they don't just deal with it themselves, they let you know.

Paulaviki

To be honest if you have to ask if you might have overreacted, you know probably did and feel bad about it. Otherwise it wouldn't be bothering you.

duchy

Well we don't know if the Grandparents are the sort of people to always be right...even when they are wrong..................or whether they were just trying to defuse the situation. They were probably quite proud that they handled the situation so well-getting the lad to hospital, dealing with the treatment, keeping him calm etc and came down to earth with a bump when they got five hours of panic taken out of them instead of Mum agreeing how well they had handled everything.

Hopefully it's the latter and a chat just the three of them without family butting in can sort everything out with lessons learned all round.

itsanne

milliemonster wrote: »

What concerns me is that the hospital treated your son without your consent? As a nurse myself, I know that when a child is brought into hospital by anyone other than their legal guardian then consent must be obtained before treatment unless it is a life threatening situation which I am presuming this was not, so why when the hospital will have (or should have) asked where his parents were to be contacted, did your grandparents at that point not give them the information for you to be contacted, or contacted you themselves?

I'm with this ^^^ (other than being a nurse).

Two things don't make any sense. This is the obvious one. When my son had an operation, another child was brought in with appendicitis. His operation was delayed because his parents could not get there until the following day. His grandparents were not allowed to give consent.

It also makes no sense to not worry someone by letting them know about something minor yet assume they won't worry if you're four hours late.

Very odd.

houseimprover

Your reaction is understandable and they should have phoned but go make up and get back to the normaility of a few weeks ago. They will know to call you now.

victory

They should have rang you, maybe they were waiting in the A&E queue which can be very long until they had a definete as to what was going to happen?

How did they get the consent to have their GS seen to without a parent being present?

pollypenny

marisco wrote: »

I think you all reacted to the situation in a state of shock and upset, and did and said things in the heat of the moment, that you all wish you had handled differently now. It is so lovely that your little boy has been able to build a precious bond and spend time with his great grandparents. So few children nowadays can do that.

I would suggest that you phone them and ask if you can pop round and discuss this now you have all calmed down a bit. To be honest they did everything right by your son, sort immediate treatment for him and kept him safe. They just didn't make a phone call. Perhaps they were too busy rushing him out the door to the hospital to phone from home. Do they have mobile phones? Did they have any spare change on them to make a call from the hospital? Bare all this is mind and consider that you really can more than trust them again in future.

Ditto!

I think I'd have reacted like you did, OP, but realised afterwards that I'd over-reacted due to worry.

Just meet and talk over the issue.