When it comes to dating etiquette, most of us would agree that ditching a date midway is unequivocally a-hole behaviour: but strangely, one man's anecdote of walking out on a former flame has been met with support online.
Taking to the Reddit forum 'AITAH' - a similar subreddit to 'Am I the Asshole', where people anonymously seek advice on their most pressing moral conundrums - the man in question admitted he ditched his date at a restaurant after she revealed she had a son.
If the story had ended there, yes, he likely would've been branded a major a-hole. However, the woman then allegedly told her date that she hoped he would help raise the child by providing financial support - just three weeks after the pair began dating.
Titling his post, 'AITA for leaving someone at a [restaurant] because she lied to me about having a kid (expected me to take care of them and pay for them) after 3 weeks of dating?', the man claimed that the budding romance had been "going great" before everything took a dramatic turn.
"I was dating this girl and everything was going great, three weeks in we are at a [restaurant] and she tells me out of nowhere she has a kid," he wrote anonymously to the forum. "I told her at the beginning of the date I do not want kids, and she agreed.
"She tells me the father left out on them [sic]. Now she is raising her kid alone, she said, 'I see you as a good man for my kid to raise him, I need the help'. She said, 'you have a good career' and it would be great - as her child does not get to go out much, he can 'finally enjoy the good life'."
He concluded: "I just walked out at the [restaurant] not saying anything. I blocked her number and social media and just left. AITA?"
A number of readers were quick to flood the comments section with their opinions on who was in the wrong, with the majority agreeing that in this instance, he was not the a-hole.
"It's not your responsibility to take care of her kids and her trying to pull that, especially only after [three weeks], is really sad," one wrote, while another exclaimed that the man had "dodged a major bullet".
Another Redditor sided with the original poster (OP), claiming the woman was looking to "use" him to her financial benefit, while a fourth added: "The unbelievable gall (or stupidity) of some people! NTA [not the asshole]."
"Dang she's straightforward about wanting you to be an ATM," another agreed, with a further reader writing: "NOPE. NO ONE is enough to make me want to deal with children in my romantic relationship. She lied to you by omission. She probably skirted around your 'I don't want kids' by thinking that well, these aren't your kids."
Some Redditors even weighed in with their own anecdotes, with one revealing they had faced a very similar situation: "On the second date after taking to a guy, he revealed he was living with his cousin and his kids were coming to move in with him, so he needed more space. He asked if he could come live with me with his kids... blocked so fast."
The OP himself also added further context in the comments, writing: "She actually told me, 'You are making good money so thats good for my son!' I was blown away.
"The level of entitlement... it was insane."
Earlier this year, a woman from New York went viral on TikTok after revealing she'd ditched her date mid-dinner after becoming grated by his decision to forgo a US$3 slice of cheese on his burger.
"Once I was satisfied I got up and [said] I was going to the restroom. I took my purse and I went to the waitress and I was like, 'Hey, I just want to pay the bill'. I just paid the bill and walked out of the restaurant," she said in the video documenting the sorry story.
"I texted him, 'The check is taken care of, you should've gotten the cheese'. And I blocked him."
