The word "family" means so many different things to so many different people. One thing is for certain, family does not necessarily mean a biological mother and father with 2.5 kids and a white picket fence. The only thing that defines family is the love that you put into it.
But there are those who sadly don't think that way and in particular, one mother-in-law who is especially cruel about it to her daughter's husband.
The father says that he officially married his daughter's mother when she was 4, but they had been dating since the little girl was 1.
"She has no memory of anything when she was that young and as far as she's concerned I'm her dad. Her bio father left my wife when she got pregnant then died drunk driving. Our daughter is 7 now."
As families across the world are doing in an effort to stay connected, the dad said they were talking to his MIL via FaceTime.
His daughter interrupted the conversation.
"So she came up to me yelling 'daddy' to show me a toy, and my MIL said that she shouldn't be calling me that because I'm not her real father," he wrote.
And honestly, this wasn't the first time it has happened.
"She's never seen me as her real father even though I'm a better dad than her actual father just by virtue of being alive," he wrote.
"And the kicker is I'm infertile, so it's not like I was going to get to have a biological child anyway," he added. "So it's basically like I adopted a 1 year old, except she happens to be my wife's daughter. Anyway the point is I consider her my daughter… She's made comments like this in the past, and I was sick of it so I told her to go [expletive] herself and walked away. I had already made clear to her that I didn't like the comments."
His wife however was pretty upset at his blow-up.
"My wife later said I shouldn't have blown up on her, and that she's already talked to her about it and she said she would stop last time," he wrote. "But she clearly didn't stop because she made another comment. My wife thinks I should apologize for being rude, I don't see why I should have to."
Now the dad wants to know if he was totally off base for telling her off or if it was fair game.
People not only didn't think the dad was wrong, they applauded him for standing up for himself.
"Tell your wife that an apology is owed to you and your daughter for saying that [expletive]," a user wrote. "Also, point out that 'talking' to MIL is doing no good. So, it's time for consequences. No FaceTimes until she apologizes-genuinely. Then she's on probation. Each time she acts up, another week of no FaceTime."
Other emphasized that his wife needs to get on board with shutting this down.
"Your wife needs to tell her mother to STFU," he wrote. "And you need to be strong enough to tell your wife to tell her mother to STFU. Your wife isn't going to like it, and normally I wouldn't recommend such. But seriously… you wife needs to tell her mother to STFU."
All in all, MIL better get on board to suffer the consequences of a ruined relationship.
