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A mom is being encouraged to take action against her daughter’s school after administrators called CPS on her for not immediately answering her phone when her child was sick. Posting her dilemma to Reddit, she admitted to being extremely upset by the school’s actions, especially considering they had her dad’s contact information as well.

The cards are really stacked against working mothers in today’s world. They are expected to work like they don’t have kids and parent like they don’t have to work. Dads, on the other hand, seem to get a pass and are often applauded for doing the bare minimum when it comes to parenting.

A mom said her daughter’s school called CPS when she didn’t answer her phone while she was working.

“Our daughter started school last month. I told the front office under no circumstance should they call me if something happens to her, especially Wednesday Thursday or Friday. I work, and I am not allowed to have my phone on my person while working,” she began in her Reddit post. 

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She explained that her daughter’s school was explicitly told to call her dad, who works nights and is home during the day, as a result. However, during her recent lunch break, she noticed that she had sixteen missed calls from the school. Immediately panicking, she thought that something terrible had happened.

She quickly called the school back, frantic to know what had happened. She learned that they had called because her daughter was sick and throwing up. To make matters worse, because she didn’t answer the phone, the school decided to call CPS under the guise of “abandonment.” 

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When she asked if they’d called her husband, the school claimed they hadn’t tried. 

“I called him and he went to pick her up. There was a woman sitting with her in the nurses office who was also there during orientation night, but she wasn’t our kids teacher or administration so we didn’t get introduced to her,” she continued. “As soon as my husband got there she scurried off, and when he asked the woman at the front desk who she was she reiterated that she had ‘called someone about your wife abandoning your daughter.'”

The school administrator at the front desk told her husband if an incident like this happened again, “it would be a lot more serious, and we should consider making sure moms always there when her kid needs her.” They completely ignored the fact that this mom is unavailable during certain hours of the day. This debacle with her daughter’s school proved that moms are held to an unrealistic standard in all aspects of life.

According to Skylight Mental Load Report, 78% of moms consider themselves the default parent, carrying roughly 75% of the mental load for their family. Meaning moms are usually the ones responsible for knowing all of the information about their children, while dads are considered the secondary parent.

But like in this case, that’s not always how a family operates. Unfortunately, society doesn’t seem to reflect the fact that the default parent isn’t always a mom. Her child has two active parents, and the school’s decision to ignore instructions and just contact her confirmed that the bias is alive and well, even in a child-centric environment that should know better.

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Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.