A man remarried after his late wife passed away and planned a dinner party for his current wife’s birthday at a prestigious restaurant. His son had made a wooden tree with their names on it as a gift, but the stepmother asked that he not bring it to the restaurant. The man cancelled the party and an argument ensued, with the stepmother’s family accusing him of overreacting.
Source: Reddit
I (M36) remarried after my late wife passed away. I have a son (15). My current wife and I have been together for 2 years. She generally has a good relationship with my son although they tend to have some disagreements from time to time.
My son has a background in arts that involve wood. He used to help his grandfather with his woodworking and learned how to make hand made wooden items and use them as gifts.
I planned a dinner party for my wife’s birthday at a prestigious restaurant. The day before the party, she was cleaning my son’s room and saw what he got her for her birthday and that was a wooden tree with mine, hers, and his name on it. She talked with him and told him that while she thought it was a sweet gift, she asked that he don’t bring it to the restaurant and give it to her there. Why? No idea. When my son told me this I just had to call her out on it. She flatout said that she thought the gift looked ridiculous and she didn’t want it to be seen in that prestigious restaurant, and in front of her guests. I lost it on her and told her she should be ashamed of herself for saying this when my son was being sincere and thoughtful. She swore she wasn’t “ashamed” or “embarrassed” by his work and even said she’ll take the gift but she “simply” didn’t want it to be seen there. I told her not to worry about it since I decided to cancel the whole thing. She went off on me calling me unreasonable for outright cancelling her birthday over such a trivial thing. I refused to keep arguing but she threw a fit about how I ruined her birthday and made her lose respect for me and my promises.
My son kept the gift since she left thd house 2 days ago, and her mom has been chewing me out for my decision and calling me an a**hole for treating her daughter like this.
It could be that it was not a big deal and I overreacted, but my son was feeling hurt by her request.
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