A recent post on Reddit has sparked a discussion on stepparents and their relationships with stepchildren. OP asked the AITA community their opinion on his actions towards his stepmother, wondering if he was being cruel, but in reality, he was being reasonable as sad it was.
The post starts with some context; OP has two siblings, and their parents divorced when they were early teenagers. Each of them moved on with new partners, and his father married a woman named Anne, who happened to have a son.
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He explained that neither he nor his siblings developed a relationship with Anne and their son because they only met after she was already engaged to his father and got married quickly. As years went by, they didn’t spend much time with her because, unfortunately, her son had a rare type of cancer and had to travel to other states to go to hospitals.
Anne’s son passed away while OP and his siblings were on vacation with their mother. She was deeply upset about their absence and held it against their mother until this day. Regardless, OP continuously clarified that they didn’t have a relationship with them, so even though it was sad, they didn’t feel the need to stop their vacation.
Now OP is getting married and pretends to do a mother-son dance with her mother. Anne found out about this plan and told OP she wants to dance with him too, saying she is as entitled as “that woman,” referring to his mother.
Anne Demanded A Dance
OP Put His Foot Down
Anne’s derogatory comment made OP angry, on top of her attitude, so he refused to dance with her. She ranted about he treated her like she was a stranger, and he didn’t let her continue being a parent after she lost her only biological child.
Though OP felt terrible about breaking her heart, he cleared out that it wasn’t her job to make her a parent and reminded her that they never even were close. Most of the comments agreed with him, saying it wasn’t his responsibility to replace her son.
Users pointed out that the problem isn’t that she is his stepmom, but the fact that they never developed a relationship, and she isn’t entitled to ask something as personal as dancing on the most important day of his life.
She Was Being Disrespectful
They Are Not A Replacement
They Don’t Have That Kind Of Relationship
