Dysfunctional families significantly impact the well-being of their members, particularly children, leading to enduring feelings of guilt, shame, and inadequacy, along with attachment issues. A Reddit user recently shared her experience in a family marked by dysfunction, where the father, though residing under the same roof, remained largely absent from his children’s lives.
The teenager recounted on the AITA Reddit thread that her mother took on the primary responsibility of caring for her and her siblings, as their father played a minimal role in their upbringing. A revealing incident unfolded when the father carelessly left his mobile phone on the table one day. Seizing the opportunity, the Reddit user (OP) discovered a message on the phone that read, “last night was amazing, can’t wait to see you again,” accompanied by emojis.
After thinking about it for a short time, she decided to tell her mother that her dad was cheating on her. “She got pretty emotional which I felt bad about, and told me not to worry and that I should just worry about being a kid and let her take care of the rest, so I just let it go cause I didn’t want to hurt her more.”
One evening, the entire family gathered for dinner at OP’s grandfathers. There, her cousin shared the news that she started a new job. Everyone was pleased with the news, but then OP’s father told OP that she should be more like her cousin because she wasn’t any good according to him. But he didn’t stop there. In fact, he continued shaming OP telling her she should focus more on school and a lot more.
At one moment he mentioned that OP lacked respect for him, and that was the final straw.
At this point, OP had it enough. “Hard to respect you when you openly cheat on Mom and don’t even try to hide it,” she said in front of everyone.
The room went silent at first, but then her father started yelling both at her and her mother. The mom then took her kids and told her husband she shouldn’t be returning home.
Once home, OP started receiving text messages from her relatives who accused her of ruining the evening and the family. Her mom, however, told her “that she understood my frustration and I probably should have expressed it better privately but what’s done is done.”
Redditors were quick to comment that OP was NTA.
What are your thoughts on this?
Please SHARE this story with your family and friends on Facebook.
