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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Taking DD to visit her dad in psychiatric ward

77 replies

Natsku · 06/06/2017 08:46

Really not sure what to do and am probably BU to even consider not taking her but here goes - hasn't seen her for a year and phone contact has been sporadic and for the last two months no contact at all, he completely disappeared. Out of the blue he calls me from the hospital yesterday and asked me to take her to visit him there. He has a long history of mental health problems which have caused a lot of problems for me and DD.

I got more information from him when we called back later so she could talk to him, he only got to the hospital on Thursday and has no explanation for his two month disappearance so I'm sure he's not mentally stable yet which is putting me off taking DD there as I'm not sure what the positive is for her to see her dad when he's still unstable and heavily drugged, but on the other hand I know it would be positive for him and probably aid in his recovery and of course he is her dad and she has missed him. She isn't expressing any interest in going to visit him though. I just can't decide whether I'm reluctant to take her because deep down I know its not the best idea right now or because I'm just being unreasonable and convincing myself its not the best idea.

On a less relevant note its difficult to get there (three hours on the bus and would have to stay overnight in a hotel) and I've just started to get morning sickness so the idea of long bus journeys is really off-putting.

So would I be unreasonable to not take her yet and wait for a couple of weeks at least?

OP posts:
Natsku · 06/06/2017 13:29

Well her social worker doesn't think its a good idea right now as we don't know what his mental state is like at the moment, and DD said she doesn't want to visit him in the hospital anyway, only wants to visit him if he's out of the hospital. So going to put it on hold for now and just call every day instead so she can talk to him and I can get an idea from their conversations (on speaker phone) how ill he might be.

OP posts:
Natsku · 06/06/2017 13:32

Thanks for the advice everyone, I agree that its not fair to view mental health as different from other health issues, its not his fault he's ill, but also don't want to scare DD or upset her and she's my priority, not him. I don't know if he has any family visiting him though, I might call his dad in case he doesn't know he's in the hospital so at least his parents could visit him as they're local to the hospital.

OP posts:
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