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The plight of working moms is a difficult one. Finding the right balance can feel impossible, and women are often treated unfairly by being expected to carry it all. Trying to get back into the working world after having a baby is equally as difficult, and as it turns out, trying to interview while juggling the needs of a toddler is near impossible.

One mom experienced this unfairness when she was expected to somehow care for her two-year-old child while also conducting a remote job interview. While her husband tried to drum up support for her online, what he found instead were questions about why he didn’t do more to help.

A husband explained how unfair it was that his wife was rejected from a job because their toddler interrupted her Zoom interview.

In an interesting turn of events, a husband took to Reddit’s r/Mommit forum in an attempt to garner support for his wife. “While I know nobody is entitled to a job with any potential employer, an employer stating that because a two-year-old child interrupted a Zoom interview as the reason for no longer considering someone for a job seems intentionally cruel,” he stated.

Katrin Bolovtsova | PEXELS

As the husband got deeper into his story, other Redditors noticed some red flags. “My wife went through three rounds of interviews with this employer and created a presentation that impressed this potential employer,” he said. “After the third interview, the employer said they wanted to do a fourth interview and she was one of their top candidates for the position.”

There was, apparently, nothing the man could do to help his wife out. “We had no sitter and I had to work, so she tried to put our kid to sleep for the interview,” he explained. “Of course, my two-year-old wakes up and interrupts the interview.”

At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal. “The panel of interviewers seemed elated to meet my kid,” he said. Unfortunately, that elation didn’t last. “Fast forward three days (the day after Mother’s Day), they sent an email saying they didn’t appreciate my child’s presence and she should have got a sitter.”

This completely ruined his wife’s chances of getting the job. “Due to this inconvenience, they will be pursuing other candidates,” he recounted. “I personally feel like this was a gut punch to a mother who is trying to be the best mother while pursuing her career. Just wondering if other mothers out there have experienced similar situations?”

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If this husband wanted sympathy, that’s not what he got.

“What’s cruel is that your wife was forced to be the default parent during an INTERVIEW,” one person pointed out. “What’s unfair is that she has to personally pay the price for the lack of balance of responsibility, which is prevalent in many male-female relationships.”

Ketut Subiyanto | Pexels

Another commenter added, “They realized your kid wasn’t in daycare and thought your wife would be working while also taking care of the child. There would always be interruptions and child sounds in the background. Unfortunately, clients and employers in many industries don’t have much of a tolerance for this.”

A third person bluntly said, “It seems like this one is on you. You couldn’t take a few hours off to cover your wife for an interview? Doesn’t set a great precedent if that’s already happening before she’s even hired.”

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This wife was simply expected to be the default parent, even though she had an important interview.

Unfortunately for this woman, her husband expected her to be what is known as the default parent because that’s often just how it goes for women. Amber Thornton, PsyD, described being the default parent as “a systemic and collective experience in which there is a bias toward women and mothers in providing primary care for parenting and home- tasks.”

If this husband really wanted to help his wife, he would have done more than lodge a complaint on Reddit. He would have found a way to be there to watch his child, or hire a sitter to do so, so his wife could complete her interview uninterrupted and without any added stress.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.