Man 'Furious' With Brother-in-Law for Attending Gender-Reveal Scan Blasted

A man who went with his pregnant sister to her scan appointment has been backed online, despite angering his brother-in-law.

Reddit user u/side424234 wrote on the forum to ask if he was in the wrong for driving his sister to the appointment.

The 33-year-old posted: "My parents are deceased. I have a younger sister who's married and is expecting. I'm also married but don't have kids due to health issues on both sides."

He posted about how he will visit and check on his sister from time to time, but is not on great terms with her husband. "We're civil to each other," the brother wrote. Since falling pregnant, his sister has been in contact more, asking for help and support.

"I have no issue with this, but my brother-in-law thinks I'm being 'too involved' in my sister and the baby's life," wrote the Redditor.

"Last week, I got a call from my sister asking if I could take her to the doctor's office. It was a gender-reveal appointment. I asked why her husband didn't take her and she explained he was supposed to drive her but he had to attend his mom's birthday and asked her to reschedule but she refused."

But after taking his sister to the appointment, his brother-in-law called him and said he was "furious."

"[He was] saying I shouldn't have gotten involved because now I'd caused him [to miss] a precious moment in finding out if he was going to have a girl or a boy," wrote the poster.

"Basically saying that I took this experience away from him and called me weird for being too involved in my sister's marriage and sticking my nose in it to the point where I was making the doctor think I was her husband."

During the argument with his brother-in-law, the poster wrote that he retaliated: "I told him the reason the doctor thought I was her husband was because of his absence and lack of commitment as a father. He blew up at me and I hung up on him."

After the confrontation, the poster said that his wife understood but suggested he may have gone too far.

Parenting expert and coach Jane Evans told Newsweek: "Certainly, big family events can make things more complex as emotions are high, and sometimes egos get in the way.

"A pregnancy or forthcoming marriage should be an exciting time, but they can also trigger jealousies and often unwanted opinions and interference. It's not easy if siblings are very close, and now there are partners.

"Siblings, of course, came first with shared stories and experiences. Understandably partners can find this a challenge," Evans said.

With thousands of upvotes and comments, the post captured attention on Reddit where users rushed to share their reactions.

One poster commented: "You are only helping when asked. If the BIL was so pissed off about taking away the experience of finding out the sex of the baby, maybe he should have gone to the appointment in the first place."

Another Redditor wrote: "Just because he doesn't step up as a father doesn't mean she should be left alone being pregnant."

"It's lovely to have such a supportive caring brother, but pregnancy is something very precious to a newly forming family," said Evans. "So this needs respecting sensitively. There will only be one gender-reveal, so it's curious why the couple couldn't make being together for it a priority?"

Meanwhile, Evans said some more work might need to be done to repair the relationship between the man and his brother-in-law.

"It sounds as if they need a neutral party to help them have a conversation where apologies and clear lines of communication are explored and set in place," said Evans. "At the end of the day, a new life is forming, and it'll be picking up on all the tension and stress, so resolving this needs to happen ASAP."

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.