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Stepmother Wants To Name Her Pregnant Stepdaughter’s Baby, Goes Nuclear When She’s Told ‘No’
You can’t have healthy relationships without some type of boundaries. Even when it comes to your family (or perhaps especially in those cases), it’s essential to set a framework of what kind of behavior is and isn’t acceptable. When people cross that line, they must know they’ve messed up. There have to be consequences for terrible behavior. A stepmom telling her pregnant step-daughter that she’s going to be “a horrible mother” is one of those times.
Internet users were shocked to read a young mother’s story on the AITA subreddit, sharing how awfully her stepmom treated her once she found out that she was pregnant. It all started falling apart when the redditor refused to name the baby what the stepmom wanted. The family drama then got way out of hand, prompting the author of the story to ask the AITA community for a verdict on who was in the wrong in this case.
Scroll down for the full story, which reads like something straight from a tale from the Brothers Grimm with how awful the stepmom behaved, and share your opinions in the comments, dear Pandas. Who overstepped the boundaries here? How would you have acted in a similar situation?
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Image credits: MART PRODUCTION (not the actual photo)
A pregnant woman shared how an argument with her stepmom over the baby’s name quickly turned nuclear
Image credits: Sarah Chai (not the actual photo)
Image credits: stepmotheraitathrow
After the mom-to-be refused to bow down to her stepparent’s will, the woman went nuclear in the drama department. She showed her toxicity by trying to bring the pregnant woman down with her words. In short, the older woman tried to guilt her stepdaughter into giving in to her demands to name the baby.
Well, the young mom had enough and told her that she wouldn’t be around her grandchild in the future. The stepmother ramped things up by throwing out even more nasty insults. The cherry on top of this Cake of Awfulness was her saying that her stepdaughter would be a horrible mother.
While some of the people closest to the redditor supported her, others, including her father, were on the stepmother’s side. Wanting to get a more objective opinion on what happened, the OP turned to the AITA community for advice. Most redditors were clear about how the author didn’t do anything wrong and that she needed to speak with her father, alone, about the stepmom’s behavior.
Alex Scot, a relationship expert, previously told Bored Panda that boundaries lead to flourishing relationships. They help avoid the build-up of anger and resentment and form healthy expectations.
“Without them [boundaries], we live our lives at the expense of ourselves. The mindset for many when it comes to setting boundaries is that they feel selfish, or that they aren’t being a good partner when they implement them, so they avoid doing it altogether,” she shared with us during an earlier interview, adding that boundaries are needed in both romantic and familial relationships.
“This only causes resentment to build and overwhelm to set in both within the individual and the relationship as a whole. Boundaries are there for us to be able to take care of and to protect ourselves so that we can show up and operate within our lives as successfully as possible.”
According to Alex, the closer a person is to us, the more flexible we have to make these boundaries. We ought to be willing to look for compromises with the people nearest and dearest to our hearts. Meanwhile, we should consider setting strict boundaries for the people who don’t mean much to us.
The OP shared some more details in the comments of her post
Most people thought the woman did nothing wrong. Here’s exactly what they told her online
What do you think ?
Caro Caro 2 years ago
NTA. Absolutely NTA. The stepmother is a vicious woman. The things she has said and done to that poor young lady is horrible and mean. Nobody has the right to name another's baby. That's up to the parents.
Auntriarch 2 years ago
I can just fast forward a few years and imagine the step mother saying the same foul things to the little girl
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Kaleb Prichard (MiraiKuma) 2 years ago
Something tells me that this isn't 100% what is going on, but if it is 100% what is going on, both the stepmom and the dad is an a*s hold. More so the dad.
It's Me 2 years ago
It can’t be. The way the story is written is basically like a run on sentence with only the one woman talking and the stepdaughter complaining. It’s a strange tale. Might be true but it’s not quite accurate. Many key details missing.
Load More Replies...
The Starsong Princess 2 years ago (edited)
I’ve seen this before. The whole thing was designed to elicit an emotional response from you. Once you got upset with your stepmother, it became all about how awful you were to her and everything she did to get the response gets glossed over. She is doing it on purpose to cause a break with your father. She’s with him everyday and putting incredible pressure in him to choose her side. The same thing happened to my cousin but she was much older. She deals with it by trying to see her dad alone as much as possible and otherwise pretending not to hear when some antagonistic or stupid comes out of her stepmother’s mouth. We all do it - just look off into the distance and then continue the conversation like she never spoke. In your case, she’s too far gone for that - tell your dad that you will only see him without her. It may mean you see him very little or not at all.
Caro Caro 2 years ago
NTA. Absolutely NTA. The stepmother is a vicious woman. The things she has said and done to that poor young lady is horrible and mean. Nobody has the right to name another's baby. That's up to the parents.
Auntriarch 2 years ago
I can just fast forward a few years and imagine the step mother saying the same foul things to the little girl
Load More Replies... Kaleb Prichard (MiraiKuma) 2 years ago
Something tells me that this isn't 100% what is going on, but if it is 100% what is going on, both the stepmom and the dad is an a*s hold. More so the dad.
It's Me 2 years ago
It can’t be. The way the story is written is basically like a run on sentence with only the one woman talking and the stepdaughter complaining. It’s a strange tale. Might be true but it’s not quite accurate. Many key details missing.
Load More Replies... The Starsong Princess 2 years ago (edited)
I’ve seen this before. The whole thing was designed to elicit an emotional response from you. Once you got upset with your stepmother, it became all about how awful you were to her and everything she did to get the response gets glossed over. She is doing it on purpose to cause a break with your father. She’s with him everyday and putting incredible pressure in him to choose her side. The same thing happened to my cousin but she was much older. She deals with it by trying to see her dad alone as much as possible and otherwise pretending not to hear when some antagonistic or stupid comes out of her stepmother’s mouth. We all do it - just look off into the distance and then continue the conversation like she never spoke. In your case, she’s too far gone for that - tell your dad that you will only see him without her. It may mean you see him very little or not at all.
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