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Internet commenters were outraged after one teenager revealed how a ridiculous request halted her father's wedding plans in their tracks.
In a viral Reddit post published on r/AmITheA**hole, Redditor u/AITA9906 (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) said she is the spitting image of her late mother and explained how that familial resemblance drew the ire of her soon-to-be stepmother.
Titled, "[Am I the a**hole] for telling my dad what his fiancée said and causing 'wedding troubles?'" the post has received nearly 11,500 upvotes and 1,000 comments in the last day.
"My mom passed away 8 years ago," OP began. "I look just like her, same hair, same eyes [and] with the right makeup I resemble her exact face."
Continuing to explain that her father was set to remarry with his girlfriend of three years, the original poster said she has long felt tension with his new partner, but assured that she was happy for the couple to seal the deal.
However, the original poster also said that she doesn't feel a bond with her father's girlfriend and recounted how their stepmother-stepdaughter relationship recently turned from bad to worse.
"A week or so ago, my grandmother (dad's mom), his fiancée and I went shopping to get something she wanted," OP wrote. "I saw a dress I liked.
"It was an olive dress that matched my hair nicely...and my grandma said that I looked like my mother because she wore that color so much," OP continued. "Two days ago, my dad's fiancée came to me and asked if I was willing to dye my [hair]...she said she didn't want people telling me I looked like my mother at HER wedding.
"I told [my dad] what happened and that it made me feel uncomfortable...[and] the wedding was paused because they fought and his fiancée's family is blaming me because I caused this problem by refusing to compromise a bride's request," OP added.
The internet is rife with tales of bizarre requests made by so-called "bridezillas" and blended families struggling to make it work.
Rarer, however, is when those worlds collide.
Parents remarrying is challenging for children of all ages, but can be especially difficult for teenagers fully accustomed to life before their stepparent was even in the picture.
"Remarriage tend[s] to intensify the natural grievance of adolescence," psychologist Carl E. Pickhardt wrote in a 2009 Psychology Today article.
"Differences between stepparent and teenage stepchild over household conduct...between parent and adolescent over respect for the new marriage...begin to irritate family relationships causing conflicts," Pickhardt continued. "Incompatibilities become hard to deny and harder to accept."
Although tension between stepparent and stepchild is common and, as Pickhardt asserted—to be expected, sources of tension vary by family and as a result, vary in severity.
In the case of the original poster and her father's fiancée, there was always some tension, but not enough to cause major familial issues. Then, the request for OP to change her hair color because she looks like her late mother changed that, transforming an underlying rift into a wedding-stopping stalemate.
Throughout the comment section of the viral Reddit post, Redditors were dumbfounded by the notion of asking another person to look less like their mother and commended both the original poster and her father for taking swift action when that exact request was made.
"[Not the a**hole]," Redditor u/NUT-me-SHELL wrote in the post's top comment, which has received more than 17,000 upvotes. "Her request was so petty and out of line it isn't even funny.
"If your father has any sense at all, he will tell his fiancée to kick rocks," they added.
Redditor u/Admirable-Frog-3748, whose comment has received nearly 3,000 upvotes, echoed that sentiment.
"That woman has an incredible amount of nerve to ask you to dye your hair," they wrote, bluntly.
"Her insecurities and jealousy about your mom surfaced and she made a really unreasonable request," Redditor u/CrystalQueen3000 chimed in, receiving more than 2,500 upvotes. "It's right that the wedding has been put on hold for now, she has some stuff to work through."
Newsweek reached out to u/AITA9906 for comment.
About the writer
Taylor McCloud is a Newsweek staff writer based in California. His focus is reporting on trending and viral topics. Taylor ... Read more