Wife Dragged for Backing Prankster Sons Who 'Ruined' Stepsister's Birthday

A woman has been slammed for defending her sons who "ruined" their stepsister's fourteenth birthday.

Redditor u/Wthrowaway566 shared the post, titled: "AITA [am I the a******] for telling my husband he exaggerated when he said my kids ruined his daughter's birthday?" on January 8, and it has since received over 22,600 upvotes.

Newsweek reached out to Alison Huff, a marriage expert, who said "it isn't okay to back your child even when they're wrong."

Explaining the situation, the mom wrote: "Last week was my stepdaughter's (SD) 14th birthday. She was in the hospital days prior for a medical issue and now she's better. My husband threw her a small birthday party.

"Unbeknownst to me, my boys 16 [and] 12 decided to pull a funny prank and mess with the birthday cake they made for her."

The stepdaughter was left in tears when she realized the icing on the cake was mayonnaise. As a result of this, the original poster's husband "blew up" at the boys.

The mother said: "My husband said it was the wrong time to do this on her birthday especially after getting out of the hospital. He told the boys they ruined her birthday but I told him he exaggerated with this statement. He got upset and yelled at me for defending this behavior and being an enabler. I don't I am because the boys love her that's why they act like this but my husband was having non of it."

She concludes the post by stating there is a divide in the household and each family member is no longer speaking to the other.

Previously, the U.S. Bureau of Census revealed there are 2.4 million stepchildren in the U.S. It is important for stepparents to avoid favoring their biological children over their emotionally hurt stepchildren, according to Huff.

Speaking to Newsweek, she said: "There's a very fine line between backing your child and defending (or condoning) inappropriate behavior.

"In the case of the Reddit thread, specifically—the poster backed their children's decision to prank a stepchild during a very sensitive time, which adds an additional layer of nuance.

"Particularly in scenarios such as this, it isn't okay to back your child even when they're wrong—they need to understand that they were wrong so they can make wiser decisions in the future."

Over 3,150 users have commented on the post, and the top comment received over 50,000 upvotes, it said: "Let me rephrase that: 'AITA for telling my husband he exaggerated for calling my boys bullies who ruined his recovering daughter's birthday?' Duh...YTA [you're the a******] times a million."

Another popular comment received 25,700 upvotes, it said: "RULE OF THUMB....When you 'show love' to people, they don't generally get reduced to crying.....That's a REAL easy way to know you owe someone an apology. YTA but you can take this opportunity to help shape your sons into better men! Best of luck."

"Prime opportunity for a heartfelt apology by her and her boys. Something along the lines of: 'We're sorry, we didn't realize we were being mean. We weren't thinking and thought you'd laugh with us. We're very sorry and we'll not do it again. We love you.' It really is just that easy. It helps to mean it," suggested another.

Newsweek reached out to u/Wthrowaway566 for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.

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