“Am I the [j**k] for faking fainting at my mom’s house after my husband attempted to announce my pregnancy?”
This is how one Redditor’s conundrum kicks off, and from that question alone it’s easy to think that the poster is being overly dramatic .
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But not everything is so simple . Let’s delve into this slice of family drama.
There’s some pre-existing baggage.
In her post , OP explains that a family member (her nephew) recently died of leukemia at the age of eight.
Also, OP’s hubby had a serious eye injury.
“He loves my family and my family love him, but he can act out sometimes for no reason,” she explains.
The family gathered after OP’s nephew’s funeral.
It was a sad day for everyone, but OP had also just found out that she’s pregnant. She told her husband. You can already see where this is going.
At the predictably somber gathering, people shared memories of a life lost too young.
“My husband kept giving me signals from under the table saying we should announce that we’re expecting to lighten the mood,” wrote OP. “I warned him multiple times as he said he’ll do it if I won’t.”
“He stood up and was about to open his mouth when I quickly pretended to faint and fell back in my chair.”
OP made the executive decision to stop the pregnancy announcement dead in its tracks by pretending to faint.
Long story short: everyone was concerned, but OP “came to” and acted fine. Her husband even bought into it.
Afterwards, she told him why she faked it.
“He lost it, calling me ridiculous and complaining about how I played him and ruined this opportunity for him,” she wrote.
Her husband didn’t take it well.
She writes that he “was, and is, still extremely upset.” In an edit, she added that since this incident, he’s started saying her morning sickness is fake.
So, in an effort to settle things, OP asked Reddit a simple question: was she in the wrong?
The results are in…
Somewhat predictably, the vast majority of commenters agreed that OP was in the right.
“He cares more about himself and how he feels than anyone else,” wrote one. “Especially at a memorial dinner? Excuse me? For an eight-year-old boy nonetheless?”
Other commenters wondered whether the husband had suffered a traumatic brain injury when he injured his eye.
It’s hard to find a dissenting opinion.
After digging through more than a thousand comments, we were able to find a couple that thought OP was in the wrong. Some said she was being overly dramatic.
Someone else took a different approach: “My sister had kids with an unreasonable man and it totally messed the kids up,” they wrote . “Why would you give your precious children his genes? Wise up, girl.”
Some comments walked the line.
“I think fake fainting was the wrong way to handle this, but I don’t know what in his mind made him think it was ok to announce a pregnancy in that situation,” read one comment. “You should announce it privately, with only your parents and brother and his wife, and make sure ahead of time they know you’ve got some news to share.”
How would you handle this?
It seems like a terribly inappropriate event to announce a pregnancy at, but was fake fainting the best way to stop the announcement from happening? I think a brief argument might have been awkward, but less upsetting.
In any event, we want to know what you think! Check out the thread for yourself, then let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Last Updated on August 19, 2021 by D
