Soon after, the family was invited to a dinner at the grandparents’ house, a reunion where cousins and extended family were also present. During dinner, one of the teenager’s cousins mentioned their new job, which prompted the father to seize the moment to criticize his child. The teenager recalled, “My Dad took the opportunity to call me out and say I should follow after my cousin and focus more in school.”
Instead of responding, the teenager quietly ate until an uncle joined the conversation, complaining about how difficult it was to talk to young people these days. The father agreed and criticized the teenager for not respecting him. At that point, the teenager lost their composure and exposed the father’s infidelity by saying, “Hard to respect you when you openly cheat on Mom and don’t even try to hide it.” This statement left everyone in stunned silence, including the father.
Rather than scolding the teenager, the father began arguing with his wife, blaming her for spoiling the teenager. The argument escalated, and other family members had to intervene to calm things down. Eventually, the mother left the dinner with her children, telling her husband not to come home.
“When we got home, my phone started blowing up,” the teenager recalled. Many family members, including cousins and uncles, blamed the teen for ruining the parents’ marriage. Feeling guilty, the teenager apologized to their mother. The mother understood the teen’s feelings but suggested that confronting the father privately would have been better. However, she did not blame the teenager for the breakdown of her marriage.
The father continued to call the teenager, but they did not respond.
After narrating the incident, the teenager asked other Redditors for their opinions. One user said, “NTA. It’s a bit awkward to do it over dinner, but if I were a teenager and my dad was insulting my entire person like that, I think I would snap thirty seconds before you did.” Another user blamed the father and extended family, adding, “I also highly doubt your extended family would have played defense if your mum was the one cheating.”
Here’s another story about a child who discovered her father’s wife was cheating on him. Instead of telling her father, the woman got her stepmother fired and her lover arrested.