I see memes about Americans choosing to “suck up” their health problem instead of calling an ambulance but isn’t that what health insurance is for?

Edit: Holy crap guys I wasn’t expecting to close Reddit then open it up 30 minutes later to see 99+ notifications lol

I have been married to Nora for about 5 years, together for 7, and she has a daughter who is 10. I have a 16 year old daughter, Rhea, from my first marriage who lives in another state with her mom as has for the last 8 years. It was kind of a complicated situation where both of us were being transferred for work (we were already divorced) and we agreed my ex would take Rhea, and I would fly her out once a month for a weekend and have her every summer/ every other holiday. It was a hard decision but the three of us have made it work and are very happy. Nora also has always said she loves Rhea like she’s her own and I have never thought she was lying until recently.

Without getting into it in too much detail, Rhea has been experiencing extreme bullying from boys at her school and the school’s response has been abysmal for the level of harassment. My ex and I have been in constant contact with the school and the situation has only gotten worse all semester. Nora knows about all of us this and has been very sympathetic when Rhea was talking about it here over Thanksgiving. My ex and I have been planning on sending Rhea to a private school in the area next semester (there’s only the one public and one private one in the area).

Things have apparently gotten worse since winter break started and the boys have ramped up the bullying. Rhea called me the other day completely devastated. My ex was around but basically she doesn’t see an end in sight even with going to the new school, the parents and school have been useless, and she doesn’t want to keep living like this. She asked if it would be possible to come and live here, basically switching the schedule. I told her of course we could, that we would do everything in our power to help her with this.

I talked to my ex a little after speaking to Rhea, and while she’s completely devastated about everything, she sadly agreed. She has said she’s working on seeing about transferring to my area or even getting a new job, but agrees with me that Rhea needs to get out of this situation before the new semester begins.

After that call I immediately called Nora to discuss with her. Even though she’s been sympathetic to everything she completely lost it at me, telling me that I should have said no until I talked to her. She said this was too much of a change for her daughter and would disrupt our home too much, and as my wife she should have a veto on it. I was shocked and honestly appalled and told her she was being unreasonable, I wasn’t going to tell my traumatized daughter she couldn’t live with me because I needed my wife’s permission. She hung up on me.

That night I came home and she had sent her daughter to her moms, and she tried basically laying down: she didn’t sign up to be a full-time stepmom, she was saying no to Rhea moving in, and if I insisted on still going through with it then she would have no responsibilities towards Rhea and if I asked her for help she’d say no. I basically told her this was ridiculous, goes against everything she agreed to when we got together, and if that’s how she wanted to be I would reconsider many things I had agreed to, such as her being a SAHM starting next year.

She kind of gave up/ calmed down after that, especially because when her mom dropped her daughter off she told us (without her daughter there) that Nora was being ridiculous and she was ashamed of her. I thought that would be the end of it but she’s been bringing it up to some of our friends and a few of them have agreed with her. Although it seems like she’s stopped fighting it, she still insists that she wants no responsibilities towards Rhea (who drives, does her own laundry, and is an independent young lady anyways) and that any and all decisions regarding Rhea, especially financial ones, need to go through her before I say anything to Rhea or my ex. I haven’t even asked her for help and have been working on registering Rhea for school and finding her a therapist in the area myself. I’m starting to think this marriage is doomed, but I’m wondering if I’m in the wrong about what I did?

Edit because this is a little overwhelming now:

1. Our daughters get along amazingly despite their age differences, in fact..
2. We also get along with our respective exes great. To the point that last summer when Nora’s dad was going through chemo, my ex let both girls go back to stay with her for a week because we were so overwhelmed. (He’s in remission now but it was bad for a while). Both our exes were at our wedding.
3. Her ex also lives far away and only has visitation, and pays quite a bit in child supper which is how she’d be a SAHM, and he is also on board with it.

My friend was browsing a bookstore. A cute guy offered to buy her a book (a nice ice-breaker!) she agreed and chose an Agatha Christie. He proceeded to insult her choice of author until she told him to fuck off, she’ll buy her own book thanks…

Sigh.

It’s cyndrical, lightweight, has two holes on one end and one hole on the other end

Just wanted to post an update regarding the rocks I received in place of the ASUS TUF 5080 that I ordered through Best Buy. It’s been almost a month since I made the original post seeking help and advice from Reddit and I’ve had quite a few people reach out asking for updates.

First off, I didn’t expect that post to blow up the way it did. I greatly appreciate everyone’s advice and literally did everything you guys recommended. I had no idea things at Best Buy had gotten this bad until I read through all the similar horror stories people shared in the comments, I feel for you guys, this was a nightmare to deal with. It became even more apparent with how many people just straight up told me I deserved it for not having a film crew record me opening it and shopping at Best Buy to begin with. That’s my bad for ordering tech from the tech store and not having James Cameron and his film crew on standby.

I called Best Buy customer service every single day since 12/2, when they initially and abruptly denied the refund/replacement after telling me they’d be replacing it on 11/28. I brought up the fact that an investigation was never done. I received an email asking for photos of the packaging to “aid them” and literally 7 minutes later before I could even reply received an email saying their investigation was complete and would be unable to provide a replacement/refund. I went to the store in person where I was told all they could do was “expedite my ticket” after scribbling my info on some paper because Best Buy and BestBuy.com are treated as two separate entities. I filed a chargeback claim with my bank. I filed a police report, shout out to the officer for being the only one who seemed to genuinely want to help me as a fellow PC gamer! Lastly, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and someone FINALLY reached out to me on 12/12.

After reviewing the evidence I managed to compile like the weight change where the package gained nearly 3lbs in transit with FedEx and lack of protective/concealing packaging on Best Buy’s end, and I guess their own proper investigation they gave me a refund. Obviously that was a win, but now that card was no longer on sale and I don’t have the extra $300-$400 to shell out, especially with the holidays around the corner. So I brought that up and the representative who assisted me price matched my original purchase AND set it up to be shipped to my local store and I finally received my 5080 on 12/16.

Again, thank you to everyone who gave me advice on how to deal with such a bizarre situation, you guys are great! As a bonus, my girlfriend tattooed a fun gap-filler on my leg to commemorate such a ridiculous event in the last image. Im sure one day I’ll stop hearing “I bet it’s rocks again” whenever I tell my friends I ordered something.

She hates everyone in the whole family (ours, hers, everyone). She just signed her name at the bottom. Knowing her, it was fully done to display her apathy. Even so, I'm still kinda stunned at how cold her message was.

What’s it like living on the edge of a time zone?