People Challenge Our Thinking With Their Baffling "Am I The Jerk" Stories

"I (17 F) have been dealing with a fairly constant and frustrating issue. I’ve been getting recurring UTIs for a little over three years now and my parents seem to think it’s my fault.

I do everything I’m supposed to do. I go to the bathroom after 'me time', I wipe front to back, my hands are clean, I wash regularly with unscented soap and still I find myself with a UTI around I’d say 7-8 times a year.

My parents think I’m 'either getting them from sleeping around or from wiping wrong' and now when I get UTIs they get mad at me and punish me for it. Last time I got grounded for 3 months because of it.

So this time around, I’ve tried to find opportunities to seek medical attention on my own, in secret.

It’s difficult to do though because the hospital wait times are ridiculous especially for what I have because it’s not considered a priority, I have a curfew of 11 PM and I have to babysit my siblings from the time I get home from school to around 9 PM.

I went to the hospital twice but wasn’t called in before I had to go home, and because I had gone a couple of weeks without treatment it progressed and turned into a kidney infection. It’s been absolutely debilitating, so at that point I HAD to tell them what was going on.

I’m on antibiotics now but I still have a fever of 102 and It feels like I’ve been beaten brutally with a large rock in the lower back.

My mom had the audacity to ask me why I didn’t tell them and get treated, to which I responded last time I told them I got punished for it, and I didn’t feel like being told it was all my fault when I don’t even know why it’s happening and I’ve tried doing everything in my power to prevent them.

My parents think I’m being unfair and not taking proper accountability here, but I say it’s the other way around. I just wish they’d listen to me instead of telling me what they think they know about MY health issues. AITJ?"

Another User Comments:

"NTJ, NTJ, NTJ a million times over. And speaking as someone who's had several UTIs and a couple of kidney infections, I feel for you. Sometimes you can do everything right and that stuff just keeps coming back. You should find a nephrologist and/or an urologist to find out WHY you keep getting sick.

It could be a bacteria that wasn't properly eliminated the first time around (by using the wrong antibiotics that just 'put it to sleep' instead of killing it), could be a genetic condition, could be related to kidney stones, there are a million reasons why you could be going through them and a lot of them can't be blamed on you. You felt unsafe going to the doctor to seek treatment because of how they behaved last time. This infection is on them and no one else. I hope you feel better soon!" Impressive_Culture69

Another User Comments:

"NTJ. They're gaslighting you into thinking it's your fault, probably because they don't want to pay the medical bills.

Call child protective services and get you and your sibs out. Whoever said this is medical mistreatment is correct. They are legally obligated to make sure you are receiving adequate medical care. Not that it is, but even if it IS your fault, they're still required to get you care, mind you. If you jumped off the roof and broke your arm and they didn't get you care because it was your fault, that would still be medical mistreatment. Whether or not to get medical attention for kids is not the prerogative of the parent." Astute_Primate