A nurse practitioner took to Reddit recently for opinions about how he shut his parents down when they tried to shame him and his fiancé for “living in sin” during a family dinner. Here is the full story.
They Were Due to Get Married
The OP is a nurse practitioner who had been living with his fiancé for two years while she completed her medical residency. They were set to get married in a few months when they sat down to Christmas dinner with his family.
It didn’t take long before his parents started in on them like they always did. His mother led the charge, telling everyone at the table how happy she was that the couple was finally getting married.
But the OP knew she couldn’t leave it at that, and she didn’t. His parents had always been super religious, and they never approved of the way their son had been living, even though they were generally fine with his girlfriend.
So his mother goes on to say that she’s relieved she’ll finally stop being embarrassed of her son at church every Sunday.
His Parents Embarrassed His Fiancé
OP’s dad chimed in about how proud he was of his older children, who all got married before they moved in with their significant other.
It was an argument the OP had had with his parents on many occasions, but never in front of the whole family. He could tell that his girlfriend was completely embarrassed, and that made him angry.
The thing that really galled him was that he knew his parents weren’t as pure as they pretended to be. Yet they had the nerve to call him and his fiancé out, over and over. He wasn’t going to take it any more.
But he was too smart and too respectful to just start yelling and pointing his finger at his parents. Instead, he steadied his nerves and jumped into a conversation about his work.
He Talked About Premature Babies
As a primary care provider for a lot of pregnant women, the OP had a keen interest in medical stories involving births.
So he began telling everyone about a recent case involving a baby born three months early who weighed under two pounds.
The baby was strong, and the NICU thought everything would turn out OK, so it was a happy story. It was also the OP’s chance to dig into a dark corner of the family tree.
Everyone knew that the OP’s brother had been born nearly four months premature. It was a story his parents told again and again, and it had become part of family lore.
His Mother Was Pregnant Out of Wedlock
The only problem was, it wasn’t true. The OP’s grandmother had told him long ago that his oldest brother had been born at a healthy, vibrant nine pounds and 23 inches in length.
He was also a full-term baby, born at nine months as expected.
The problem for his parents was, that meant his mother had been pregnant when they got married. And here they were preaching to him about living in sin!
So, the OP used his story about the NICU baby to bring up his brother’s “premature” birth. He asked his parents if they could dig out the old birth records, just so everyone could get a real taste of history.
Rabbits in Headlights
Needless to say, his parents nearly choked on their food and quickly changed the subject.
After dinner, the parents pulled their son aside and told him they were disappointed he tried to embarrass them. They also said he was prying into private business that didn’t concern him.
He pointed out that they had been poking their noses into his business for years, and that they embarrassed his fiancé at dinner.
He Promised to Spill the Beans
He promised them that he would spill the beans to everyone if they ever brought up his living arrangements again.
As the wedding approached, his parents were still angry with him, but they didn’t say another word about how he had been living. More importantly, his fiancé was happy about the newfound silence from her future in-laws.
Reddit commenters have been nearly unanimous in their support of the OP and the way he handled the situation. Many were particularly impressed that he managed to call his parents’ bluff without completely humiliating them.
What do you think of this story? Was the OP completely in the right, or was there anything he could have done differently to keep the situation from getting so tense?
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The post He Called Out His Parents Holier Than Thou Attitude and His Brother’s Fake Premature Birth first appeared on The Net Worth Of.
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Source: Reddit