Within seconds of your child being born, most parents experience an overwhelming urge to protect their little one from harm's way, no matter the situation.
But one new dad's instant reaction to a crisis has shown his accidental bias towards one particular family member, who he saved above all the others.
Venting to Reddit, an annoyed wife explained how her husband left her and their newborn twins to fend for themselves in the garden as a swarm of wasps came storming toward them.
She said: "My husband, Brent, and I have been together seven years, married for two.
"We get along well, he is a really kind man, although things have been difficult since the twins, and after this incident, I'm questioning a lot."
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Admitting the couple has been struggling with keeping up with the house and garden work while trying to look after two babies and a dog, they decided to hire a professional gardener to help them out.
"I hired a woman Gina, who is in her mid-20s, who had done some work for my neighbours and was well-reviewed," she said.
"We decided to make a day of it and we had a lunch out there. The twins were in their playpen on a blanket, Gina and I were weeding and Brent was doing some trimming."
But while Brent was working on the other side of the garden, he accidentally disturbed a wasp nest, causing them to come swarming out in all directions.
She added: "Without saying anything to us, he immediately runs past our children, grabs his dog (a small terrier) and runs into the house, and locks the door.
"Thank God Gina had more presence of mind because while I was still trying to figure out what he was running from, she noticed the wasps swarming out, and said 'get into the shed'.
"We grabbed the babies and hid. We didn't have phones on us. We sat in there for quite a while and we could see the garden was full of wasps.
"I could see Brent looking out the window and I tried to mime for him to call for help but he didn't seem to realise."
After spending more than an hour camped out in the shed with two screaming babies, an exterminator arrived and managed to clear the garden of wasps.
Meanwhile, her husband was relaxing inside the house with his dog, eating a sandwich he prepared during the ordeal.
"It turned out a neighbour had seen what happened and called the exterminator," she added.
"I'm livid. How could he run past our kids and lock us out of the house?
"If I had been alone in the garden then I wouldn't have been able to carry both babies and unlatch the shed door at the same time.
"It's a miracle no one got stung.
"I was fuming about this and he claims it was just an emergency reaction but that's almost worse to me. His emergency response is to abandon his wife and kids."
While most users condemned her husband for his reaction, others urged the woman to take a deep look into her marriage.
One user said: "Perhaps he can't be blamed for a snap instinct to run into the house. What he can be blamed for is staying there and doing nothing.
"I know personal anecdotes aren't science, but when I was a baby my dad ran through a swam of wasps to get to me.
"Most of the parents I know are willing to risk serious injury to protect their families, or at the very least their children.
"I don't know the exact situation, of course, but I'm surprised he didn't put on a long jacket and long trousers and then try to run to the shed with a phone to make sure everyone was OK and call for help.
"Most parents I know would be going crazy with stress in the house not knowing if everyone was OK."
Another user added: "That is so terrifying! I can not imagine why anyone would do something like that. It isn't even remotely normal.
"Even if he had a crazy flight response, the fact that he locked the door and sat down with a sandwich instead of doing anything at all to help his wife and children is absolute lunacy.
"You have every right to be angry. And you have every right to question your marriage to this man.
"Have you talked to him about this at all? That's the first thing to do. I would love to know what possible reasoning he could have had in his head that would justify putting you and your babies in such danger.
"If those wasps had gotten hold of your children, they could have died. No exaggeration - he could have killed your babies. He needs to understand just how serious this situation is.
"And, because it's bugging me, what on Earth did he think locking the door was going to do? Was he afraid the wasps would coordinate their efforts to turn the knob?"
Do you have a dog story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
