Secret keeping is a challenging endeavor. It’s important to strike a balance between keeping some secrets that may destroy relationships and keeping others that will shield the emotions of those we love. In this story a mother innocently told her child she knew about the dessert secret which didn’t go well with the child. What do you think the mother should do?
Source: Reddit
I know the title sounds dumb, but I didn’t know how to word it. I have a daughter, Chloe (21), with my ex. When she was 7 we had a messy divorce. He didn’t want me to leave, and made it very clear to Chloe. After the divorce I met my husband, Jack. We started dating while Chloe was 8, but she was 9 when she finally met him. Chloe did not accept the relationship and wanted nothing to do with him, and my ex certainly didn’t help.
Sometimes I had to work the lates. So I had an idea and told Jack to basically take her out to ice cream when I was late. While Chloe hated him, she wouldn’t say no to dessert. So basically he framed it as sneaking ice cream when mum’s at work. The bribery worked pretty quickly and she came around to liking him. Nowadays she’s closer to Jack than her father (and even calls Jack dad!), and sometimes I think she’s closer to him than me.
So Chloe is currently 7 months pregnant. She was over yesterday and we were talking about everything. We talked about us as grandparents and I joked that we’ll try not to sneak our granddaughter away for ice creams. Chloe was surprised, and didn’t realise I knew about it. I explained what I said above, and that obviously he’s not gonna just take his girlfriend’s daughter out so often without telling her.
For some reason Chloe got really upset about it. She basically said we lied to her and manipulated her and that I shouldn’t think she’s ‘cheap’ to ‘buy her love’ and invade her privacy and stormed off. I honestly didn’t think this would be such a big deal. She hasn’t responded to me or Jack after she left or today. Jack is annoyed with me and says that I didn’t have to say anything, though he doesn’t seem to know why she’s so upset either.
She got along with him so well, I don’t understand why it not being a secret would ruin anything? Maybe buying her love wasn’t great, but she wasn’t giving him a chance. None of it was an insult, I just wasn’t thinking and forgot that we never explained it to her. She clearly thinks I’m wrong, and Jack isn’t happy. Am I A Jerk? Was it wrong to reveal?
