Since ancient times, we have heard many fairy tales about the confrontation between a stepmother and a stepdaughter, and the former usually acts as the 'bad guy', oppressing her husband's poor child from his first marriage in every possible way. Enough to remember, for example, the well-known fairy tale about Cinderella.
It is interesting that in all these fairy-tale plots, it's the dad who behaves really cruelly, completely obeying his wife's requirements, even the weirdest and meanest, towards his own child. And it is usually not reflected, anyway. However, this is a topic for a separate literary and psychological study, as the hero of our story today, on the contrary, favored his children to his second wife.
This tale first surfaced quite recently on the AITA Reddit community, garnering a whopping 10.3K upvotes and over 3.6K miscellaneous comments in a quite short amount of time. Most of the commenters, by the way, condemned the author of the original post, although the man, in his own words, sincerely doesn't get what exactly he is guilty of. However, let's talk about everything just in order.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is married for the second time and has two kids from the first marriage
Image credits: Ivan Alesic (not the actual image)
So, the author of the original post has two children from a previous marriage, five and eight years old. The children live with their father and his new wife, who is currently seven months pregnant and they have been married and living together for five months. As the father of the family himself admits, it’s been an adaption for everyone, mostly the children.
Image credits: u/FuureSwan4766
The wife is pregnant and as she sometimes has spontaneous headaches, she just needs to take a nap in the bedroom
The man also says that even before he and his wife began to live together, he knew that she sometimes had spontaneous headache. The woman usually takes painkillers, but now, firstly, she is pregnant, and secondly, she claims that the drugs do not help. As a result, the Original Poster's wife just goes to the bedroom to sleep at such moments.
Image credits: u/FuureSwan4766
Usually a short sleep break helps, and after that the woman feels quite good. However, in order to fall asleep, she needs, of course, silence in the house - after all, it is enough to imagine trying to sleep with a headache and surrounding noise to understand the OP's wife's needs.
Image credits: krakenimages (not the actual image)
One day the woman tried to fall asleep, but the kids were playing some extremely noisy game, so she texted the husband to quiet them down
That's what happened this time as well. The children were playing at home while their dad worked, and the wife got a headache. The woman retired to the bedroom as usual, however, this time, the children were making too much noise, so she texted her husband asking him to somehow make them stop playing as it was making her headache even worse. However, the problem was that the OP had a meeting at work and he simply did not pay attention to the message from his wife.
Image credits: u/FuureSwan4766
The husband didn't see the message, but he just claimed that he doesn't get at all why he's guilty in this very case
Then a real family drama arose, and the woman accused her husband of neglecting her health issues. The OP, in his turn, simply did not want to understand what he was actually guilty of. After all, according to the man himself, his kids were doing what they normally do, and it's their home, so there was nothing he could really do in that case. "What am I meant to say: 'My wife has a headache, go read a book?'" the man wonders.
Image credits: Jud Mackrill (not the actual image)
Most of the commenters, however, are sure that the man doesn't care about his pregnant wife and he needs to teach his kids compassion to others
However, the Original Poster did not receive sympathy or at least understanding from people in the comments. For example, some commenters are sure that he should have said just that to the children, and that would have been right. According to one commenter, when they have a headache and their three-year-old daughter plays noisy games, she is simply politely and affectionately asked to quiet down a bit.
Some commenters simply cannot believe that the husband refuses to make accommodations for someone he cares about. According to people, the father could ask his children if they could play quietly that day, watch a movie, or play outside the house and thus give his pregnant wife a break. "Teach your kids some compassion for others," commenters claim.
We believe that you have already made up your own opinion about whether the author of this story is right or not, so please feel free to express your point of view in the comments. And if you have ever witnessed the same or a similar situation, we're already waiting for your own tale, as it could be both interesting and instructive.
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