Buckle up ladies because this story is going to make your eyes roll right up to the damn stratosphere .
This week, a man submitted a lengthy story to the subreddit r/AmItheAsshole involving his stepdaughter, a shared bathroom, and some apparently unsightly period products that he doesn’t think actually belong in there.
And he had just one question for the good people of the internet: is he an asshole? (Hint: the answer is “yes”.)
Okay, let’s back up for a second and figure out what’s got this new patriarch to a blended family feeling so worked up.
In his post , the man shared that he and his three teenage sons (aged 18, 16, and 15, respectively) have been living with his new wife for about six months now.
His wife also has a child from a previous relationship — a 19-year-old daughter, who now has to share a bathroom with three new stepbrothers.
As the man explains, his eldest son recently came to him with a complaint regarding the bathroom situation.
Apparently, the 18 year old was feeling uncomfortable after spotting his stepsister’s period products in the trash can, which she hadn’t made any effort to hide or disguise.
“It makes him uncomfortable which I think is reasonable,” the man explained. “My sons are teenage boys and don’t want to see their stepsister’s period products on full display.”
In all fairness, it’s worth mentioning that his three boys have never really lived with women before, so they don’t have much experience with menstruation.
But rather than sit his sons down and have a frank discussion with them about women’s bodies and how normal, not to mention unavoidable, menstruation is, the man decided to instead bring the matter up to his stepdaughter directly.
In fact, he requested that she flush, hide, or keep her period products out of the bathroom she shares with his sons.
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Suffice it to say, their interaction was not very civil and things got pretty heated rather quickly.
After saying her stepdad “sheds like a gorilla” and branding her three stepbrothers his “skid marking sons”, the girl went on to say she couldn’t flush her tampons, and certainly wouldn’t be going out of her way to hide them, either.
Although most of us likely find this whole matter laughable, it’s clear the man takes it quite seriously.
He even later confronted his wife about her daughter’s bathroom habits, which she did not see as an issue. And when he said seeing the tampons made his sons uncomfortable, she told him his boys need to “get a grip” and left the matter at that.
“This is a genuine issue to me and she didn’t care enough to have a discussion about it,” the man explained. “Both [mother and stepdaughter] have told me to stop being so silly but I don’t see how I’m being unreasonable when it makes my sons uncomfortable. AITA?”
Not surprisingly, the Reddit jury didn’t even need to discuss the case before finding the man guilty of being a total asshole.
“She threw them in the garbage where they belong,” this user wrote. “What do you think is going to happen if your sons marry a woman? Are they going to ask their wives to hide something they cannot control?”
Another echoed this sentiment and added, “Assuming they’re straight, your sons will theoretically live with a woman in the future. They need to get over that now.”
Some people even pointed out that there could be a case made for the sons’ discomfort, but certainly not for the father’s reaction to menstruation.
As this person commented,
“I understand their discomfort because they’re young and not used to living with women. But what on earth is your excuse? And why would you want to encourage your sons to remain immature and childish about this?”
Many users pointed out that the best solution here is not to shame or silence anyone, but to turn this into a teaching moment.
“How about you have a talk with your sons about periods instead of trying to shame a woman for bleeding,” one user suggested.
Someone else wrote, “He should educate his sons now so they don’t grow up to be ignorant losers, instead of trying to make the step daughter change, are you kidding me? Tell them that it’s a natural bodily function for most women and that’s it.”
After the people of the internet unanimously declared him an asshole, the man came back with an update to this story.
“Not even two hours after I posted this, my wife and stepdaughter gathered my sons and I and gave us a full intensive ‘periods for pricks’ course, Powerpoint and all,” he shared. “It was a hoot, they made an interactive quiz and everything. My sons and I learned a lot and apologized to my stepdaughter. Thank you for your input.”
So, at least there was a happy ending to all this. Hopefully now the three teenage boys will stop complaining about something their stepsister certainly shouldn’t be shamed for, and hopefully their dad learned a thing or two, as well.
What do you think about all of this? Do you agree with Reddit or do you think the dad made some valid points? Let us know in the comments!
h/t: Reddit
