A man and his wife had been together for four and a half years before deciding to get married. Before they wed, she went through treatment for breast cancer.
During their first Christmas together, the man’s wife went above and beyond to make things memorable for them. She decorated the entire house and prepared dinner for everybody.
However, while things went smoothly for most of the day, things went south by the time they were done with dinner. He narrated the story on Reddit, where he asked for opinions on whether what he did was wrong.
His 16-year-old daughter from his first partner decided to spend Christmas with them. The man’s ex-wife was spending time with her boyfriend’s family, and she didn’t want to join them.
The man’s wife was thrilled to have the teenager over. Through the years, the man’s stepdaughter tolerated her stepmother and never made it a point to build a relationship with her.
Her behavior towards her stepmother was borderline disrespectful, and she’s done things in the past that left her father with no choice but to punish her. Each time he gave her a punishment, his wife insisted his daughter’s behavior was typical teenage behavior.
A woman yelling | Source: Pexels
A Horrible First Christmas Experience
During Christmas, the man had his in-laws over. They had a great time until he noticed during dinner that his wife seemed upset. Each time he asked her what was wrong, she refused to budge. However, after asking a couple of times, she handed him a box. It contained his daughter’s gift to her.
Christmas decoration | Source: Pexels
The man opened it and saw a bra inside. His wife broke down in the kitchen, and the man was furious at his daughter for the disrespectful and malicious gift. When he confronted his daughter, she insisted that her gift wasn’t malicious. However, the man knew his daughter had ill intentions.
“It was purposefully done to offend her stepmom and mock her illness,” the man wrote. Knowing this for a fact, he punished her by demanding she clean up everything after all the guests left.
To try and get out of it, his 16-year-old daughter asked her stepbrother to come and pick her up. When the father found out, he kicked the stepbrother out and demanded she start cleaning immediately.
The 16-year-old went berserk. The man narrated that his daughter yelled about how cruel he was and how insensitive her stepmother was for being offended by a bra.
The Man Insisted on the Punishment
At this point, the man was past arguments. He instead made sure his daughter cleaned up even though his wife said it was a lot for a 16-year-old to do. Ultimately, the man only allowed his daughter to leave once she finished cleaning up. This didn’t sit well with her mother, who called him abusive.
People on Reddit believe he did the right thing. They felt the 16-year-old needed a taste of her own medicine, even if that meant cleaning after everybody. “Having to clean up is the absolute least she should expect for what she did. Teenagers can be cruel, but that’s just way, way over the line,” one user commented.
“Is it possible for her to volunteer at the local hospital, specifically a ward where cancer patients are receiving chemo? Or a respite home? So she can truly understand the horrible reality of cancer,” another person suggested.
“This was a calculated, cruel, evil effort, and anyone who had a hand in it should be barred from your home for the rest of forever,” someone else concluded.
