Parenting is no walk in the park, and it can be even more of a struggle if you and your partner both have different ideas about what's best for your child.
And one dad has revealed he made a decision about his eight-year-old daughter that left his wife so livid she stormed out of the house - even though the action made their child happy.
The man explained his daughter - whom he gave the fake name Anna to protect her identity - was desperate to have her hair cut after growing tired of her long curly blonde locks.
But although Anna hated her hair, her mum was "obsessed" with it and was vehemently against her ever having it cut short.
In a post on Reddit, the dad explained: "Ever since she was a toddler, [my wife would] spend hours doing her hair every day, braiding it, straightening it and styling it in all sorts of ways. Our bathroom cabinets are always filled to the brim with a bunch of hair lotions, oils, creams and other fancy products.
"While it looked lovely, she hated getting it brushed and every morning used to be a screaming fest between her and my wife. Lately, she'd been begging for a shorter haircut. My wife ignored her whenever the topic was brought up in hopes that she'd forget about it, but none of that ended up happening."
After failing to find success in asking her mum for a trim, Anna instead started begging her dad - who eventually gave in to her requests after seeing how excited she was at the prospect of having her hair cut.
"I was reluctant to at first because I didn't know how my wife would react, but I agreed when I saw just how excited the kid was over something as simple as a haircut," he said.
However, when Anna got to the hairdressers and started looking through magazines for style inspiration, things got a little more drastic - as she picked out a "really short clipper cut".
The dad knew he'd be in trouble with his wife for allowing their daughter to cut her hair so short, but insisted he wasn't going to compromise on his child's happiness, so let her go through with the shaved style.
He explained: "She got to flip through a lot of magazines and pick a picture of a haircut. And when she chose a really short clipper cut, I knew I was gonna be in deep s*** with my wife. At that point though, there was no turning back. I mean, what could I have really done? Tell her that no, she can't get the haircut she was so over the moon about?
"By the end of it, Anna couldn't stop smiling. She went around the salon showing it off to everyone and even asked me to take a bunch of pictures even though she normally hates having pictures taken of her.
"We did get one rude comment from an older woman at the salon, something along the lines of 'You can't even tell if she's a boy or a girl now', but Anna was way too excited about her hair to notice."
When the pair returned home, the mum was furious and stormed out of the house in tears - leaving Anna worried that she was going to be punished for cutting her hair.
"She refused to even look at Anna, locked herself in her room and cried then got in the car and drove off," the dad said.
"I knew she wouldn't react well to the haircut but I wasn't expecting her to take it this badly. The kid's upset too and no matter how much I reassure her she still thinks she's in trouble for getting her hair cut.
"I realise how attached my wife was to Anna's hair, but at the end of the day, I still think it's just hair. The kid's old enough to decide these things for herself and she was really happy with the haircut."
Reddit users were quick to share their thoughts on the man's situation, and while many said he was in the wrong for going behind his wife's back, others said he did the right thing by his daughter.
One said: "What your wife has been doing and is continuing to do is sending the message to Anna that her body is not her own, and despite her own desires, she should put other people’s feelings about what she does with her body first. Is this really the message you want your daughter to learn?"
But a second said: "Soft [you're the a**hole], but not for letting the kid have a haircut she wanted, that part is fine. For not taking the time and effort to sit down with your wife first and talk it out, try and see why she was so attached to the hair, try and get her to see that it's really the kid's call, look for a solution."
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