A Stepdad’s Failed Bets With His Stepdaughter Have Redditors Begging for the Confidence of a ‘Mediocre White Man'
Family vacations — which should be solely filled with sun and ice cream or snow and cocoa — tend to be filled with family drama. And that was definitely true for a family of five that recently went on a 2-week vacation.
The woman who originally posted (the “OP”) said she has a 15-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and two stepkids — ages 13 and 16 — who belong to her husband. She explained on the “Am I The A—hole? (AITA?)” subreddit that both her husband and her daughter are “very competitive,” and things went awry as soon as they got on their flight.
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What Happened?
OP’s daughter saw that there was sudoku on the plane and made a bet with her stepdad that if she finished the hardest level first, we would buy her WiFi for the flight. Alternatively, if he finished first, she’d have to share a bed with her 13-year-old stepsister who really didn’t want to sleep with the 16-year-old who is known to kick in her sleep.
Following?
OP’s daughter — who had been playing sudoku for months! — won the competition and earned her WiFi. When the blended family got to their destination, OP’s bio-daughter would challenge her stepdad to races both in the pool and on land. She’s reportedly won medals at state track meets and been swimming since she was a toddler, so she would easily beat him at that too.
“Every day she’d challenge him to something, win, and he’d have to buy her something from the resort or local shops,” OP said. “My husband was getting sick of losing and my stepdaughters were upset that their dad was buying her stuff and not them so I told my daughter she either couldn’t compete with her stepdad or she had to let him win.”
*Record scratch*
“Or she had to let him win?!” You’re kidding, right?! Is her stepdad a 4-year-old?
Consequences
OP’s daughter told her infantile stepdad about the arrangement, saying he “couldn’t handle losing.” (Which sounds about right.) They started to argue and OP told her daughter that if she didn’t stop, she’d be grounded at the resort (the horror!) for the rest of the trip.
“She decided to test me so I stuck to my word and she was left at the resort while the rest of us went out every day,” OP said. “The vacation was much more enjoyable without her turning everything into a competition but she told her dad when she got back that we grounded her and he’s mad at me now for leaving her there and excluding her from the vacation because my husband couldn’t act like an adult.”
Yup, OP really said that. And now her ex is involved. He’s siding with his daughter and forcing her to stick to the once-lax custody schedule while also threatening to go to court for child support and back pay.
So, OP wants to know, is she the AH “for grounding [my daughter] for ruining the vacation?”
Reddit’s Reaction
Hahahahahahaha seriously?! Who is this sad little man? How fragile is his ego and how nonexistent is his self control that he can’t stop agreeing to bets with his stepdaughter? If you’re not going to like losing — and statistically speaking, you won’t like it and it will happen — don’t take the bet!
“YTA and unfortunately, so is your husband because he can’t stop accepting competitive bets from his 15-year-old stepdaughter, then being upset when he consistently loses to her,” says the top comment with 17 thousand upvotes. “You should have told him to simply tell her, ‘No thanks’ … He should have then decided that would be the wisest and most mature way to handle the situation. Nothing wrong with asking your daughter to stop trying to get your husband to compete against her during the vacation, or at least asking that she stop asking for rewards if she wins. But she is the child in this situation – it should have been up to the two adults (you and your husband) to figure out a way to put a stop to the competitions.”
And how, Redditors want to know, could he consistently agree to such inane bets? Bets that he should have known he would lose. How could he not have known his stepdaughter is a competitive runner and swimmer?
“There’s an interesting phenomenon where apparently there are a lot of men who believe they can beat a woman at any physical contest,” one Redditor explained. “Regular-a** dudes who claim that they could beat Serena Williams at tennis, stuff like that. I agree, it would be strange for him to not know that stepdaughter competes- but maybe he just thought he could beat her regardless. Because MaN sTrOnG giRL wEaK.”
“Dear Lord, please give me the confidence of a mediocre white man,” one person commented and more than 2.3 thousand people wanted the same thing (if their upvotes are any indication).
Or, why not change the stakes? Or the participants? “Maybe he wins, he chooses the place to eat dinner, she wins she gets an extra dessert or even better all the children do. That way all the family can be involved and everyone can ‘win” in the end. You know, like basic parenting stuff.”
Then Redditors go round and round in circles, trying to decide who was the bigger a—hole: OP or her husband. “[OP] didn’t ruin the trip,” one person said. “He did, by not knowing how to adult.” Meanwhile, people say OP should not have gone so hard and should have stood by her daughter. “Ask yourself what kinda lesson you just taught your daughter, OP. Cuz what I heard was, ‘Just let the boys win,’ ‘His ego is too fragile to stop taking bets, so you need to stop betting against him,’ and ‘I’m punishing you bc you didn’t hide your talent in the face of a man.'”
But if this post should have taught us anything, it’s that not everything has to be a competition. They can both be a—holes. And you bet your a** they are.
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