A dad has been accused of ruining his own daughter's Christmas by her mum, after he punished her for a cruel gift she bought his wife.
The man explained how he'd been in a relationship with his wife for four and a half years, having tied the knot earlier this year after she completed treatment for breast cancer.
He has a 16-year-old daughter, who he says "tolerates but won't accept" his wife, and can often be passive aggressive towards her, but insists his wife has been "graceful and forgiving" towards the teen.
"There's been tension around the holiday and surprisingly my daughter decided to spend Christmas with us as her mum went to visit her future step-dad's family few towns over," the dad wrote on Reddit's AITA forum.
"My wife was thrilled with my daughter staying with us. She prepared everything and I helped here and there while my daughter was on her phone the entire time. I welcomed my in-laws and we had a great time throughout the day."
He continued: " Christmas dinner went fine, though my wife seemed a bit upset. She refused to say what's wrong til I pressured her. She then opened the box my daughter got her for Christmas and there was a bra inside it.
"My wife broke down crying in the kitchen. I was fuming I called for my daughter and confronted her about the gift and she tried to explain it wasn't malicious but I disagreed and said yes it was and it was purposefully done to offend her step-mum and mock her illness."
As a punishment for the gift, the dad decided his daughter would have to do all the cleaning after guests left, but instead of doing as she was told, the 16-year-old called her step-brother to come and pick her up and take her back to her mum's house.
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"I caught her at the door and kicked her step-brother out and told her to start cleaning up immediately. She went hysteric yelling about how cruel I was to punish her on Christmas and how insensitive and unladylike my wife was to be offended by the bra," he wrote.
"I refused to engage in her yelling matches and made sure she did all the cleaning which my wife said was a lot and asked me to let my daughter go to her mum's house but I insisted not until the punishment was complete.
"My daughter called her step-brother again and left later. She immediately called her mum who came after me on so much and berated me for 'ruining Christmas' for her. I had a argument with her about what our daughter did but she sided with her and called me abusive and a robot controlled by my wife though my wife asked me to let it go."
The man then turned to Reddit to question whether others thought the punishment was justified or whether he should have handled the situation differently.
"I was fully prepared to be on the side of your daughter because that's who I tend to sympathise with in situations like this, but what she did was so unbelievably cruel and malicious that I hardly even know what to say," one Reddit user commented. "Having to clean up is the absolute least she should expect for what she did. Teenagers can be cruel, but that's just way, way over the line."
Another added: "Gifting your step-mum a bra is far from usual, this was a targeted and very cruel attack to specifically hurt her. I don't know if there is back story why your daughter hates your wife so much (if you cheated or if you put your kids behind her), but you said your daughter decided to spend Christmas with you and didn't have to, so there aren't excuses in my opinion."
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