We all have hopes and expectations when it comes to how we envision our lives playing out, but the key to being a good parent is to roll with the punches. Perhaps you were hoping for a girl and instead got a boy or vice versa. As long as you love the kid no matter who they biologically are, and who they identify as later, that's the only thing that matters.
But for one dad, the news that he was having another little girl was so upsetting, he walked out of he and his wife's gender reveal party.
The dad explained that he and his wife are expecting baby No. 2 and they already have a 5-year-old little girl.
"She's been grouchy her whole pregnancy so her sister offered to plan her a gender reveal party," he claimed of his wife. "The plan was that all the food and decorations would be blue or pink and in the end we'd get one of those special sparklers that would light up in either blue or pink to reveal the gender. We went to the doctor and got her to write the result in a folded piece of paper that we passed over to her sister without looking. So flash forward to the day of the party and the moment of truth comes and the sparkler turns out to be pink for a girl."
The dad said seeing the pink sparkler just set him off and all he felt was bitter disappointment.
"To be honest, all I was hoping for for baby #2 is to be able to toss a ball around with him and coach little league," he wrote. "Or watch him go on Boy Scouts camping trips. I know my daughter is only five, but I've already started to deal with the dramas of being a father of a girl and the thought of having to double up now on the neuroticism was harrowing. I grew up in a house with three older boys and one younger sister and I can't imagine seeing myself be outnumbered."
When his wife noticed his reaction, she grabbed his arm and told him to pull it together because people were coming up to congratulate them.
"At that moment I just snapped," he admitted. "I shook my head and walked out to my car (we came separately) and drove to my sister's house. I start getting texts from my sister in law and my wife saying 'way to reenact' their dad leaving their mom when they were 10 and 12. I felt like that accusation was unfair and that I just needed some time alone. I didn't ask to be flabbergasted- it just happened. And I don't think it's fair that they would have demanded I smile and nod for the next couple of hours."
Redditors gave the dad a piece of their mind, and didn't hold back.
"No one is stopping you from tossing a ball with your daughter, or from camping with them, or encouraging them to participate in sports," chided one reader. "You are the one stopping them from this."
Others were particularly put off by his "outnumbered" perspective.
"And how the [expletive] does someone feel outnumbered by your own daughters and wife," asked one reader. "They're on your team, not against you. OP needs to do some deep digging because it sounds like he's not ready to be a father if his love is conditional on whether he has a boy or girl. Really sad situation."
Ultimately, Redditors determined he needed a reality check.
"The neuroticism part really got me," wrote another user. "Like 5-year-old boys are famous for being stoic and calm at all times, bastions of emotional control they are. All kids of every gender are feelings-tornados. Plus big manly OP is the one storming off like a toddler. All the women kept it together."
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