This Dad Let His Parents Pitch New Wives a Month After His Wife Died, and Then Sat in Silence While They Made His Grieving Daughter Cry

Grief is a tricky beast that affects everyone differently. Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves while others retreat inward to process their pain in private. But when you are a parent, your primary job is to make sure your kids feel supported, no matter how they choose to mourn. One dad on Reddit recently failed this basic parenting test in spectacular fashion, and the internet is absolutely appalled by his complete lack of a spine.

The Original Poster is a father who tragically lost his wife not long ago. He has two children, a twenty year old son named Jacob and an eighteen year old daughter named Felicia. Right off the bat, the dad admits a glaring flaw in his family dynamic. He is an extrovert who bonded easily with his extroverted son. His late wife was the one who was closer to their introverted daughter.

Because his daughter is academically driven and tends to deal with things on her own, this dad basically decided he was off the hook for parenting her through the most traumatic event of her life. When her mother passed away, the teenager became reserved and quiet. Instead of checking on her or trying to bridge the gap, the dad just let her suffer in silence because he claims he did not know how to handle her.

The situation went from neglectful to downright toxic when the dad’s parents came to visit. They were ostensibly there to offer condolences, but they brought a whole lot of audacity with them instead. The daughter already disliked her grandparents, but she was forced to sit at the dinner table with them anyway just to keep the peace.

It has only been a month since the wife died. A single month. And what did the grandparents decide was the appropriate dinner table conversation? They started pitching names of women the dad should consider dating. It is profoundly disrespectful to the memory of the woman who just passed away and incredibly cruel to do right in front of her grieving children.

The eighteen year old daughter rightfully spoke up. She pointed out that her mother just died and they were already trying to set her dad up on dates. Instead of the dad defending his daughter and shutting down his parents, the grandfather told the grieving teenager to butt out of a conversation that “wasn’t about her.”

Then the grandmother decided to go for the jugular. She looked at her teenage granddaughter and actually said that because the girl did not cry at the funeral, her mother must not have been significant enough to her. It is genuinely hard to fathom how an adult could say something so vicious to a child who just lost her mom.

That cruel comment broke the dam. The introverted daughter started screaming and sobbing. She revealed the agonizing truth that she cries herself to sleep every single night. She waits by the front door hoping her mom will walk through it before reality sets in. She then looked right at her dad and called him out for treating her like an emotionless robot while only offering comfort to her brother.

And what did the dad do while his daughter was having a complete emotional breakdown? Absolutely nothing. He just sat there. He claims he did not know how to react because she had not shown that much emotion before. Thank goodness for the twenty year old son, who actually acted like the adult in the room and escorted his sister away from the toxic grandparents.

The son later texted his dad, rightfully calling him out for not intervening and showing his daughter some comfort. The dad’s pathetic excuse was to argue that she is very independent and deals with things by herself. The son had to remind his own father that his sister is still a teenager with actual feelings who needed her dad.

This dad is absolutely the ahole. Being independent does not mean a child does not need their remaining parent to protect them from vicious relatives. He allowed his parents to disrespect his late wife and verbally abuse his grieving daughter, and he did it all while hiding behind the excuse that she is introverted.

It is time for this dad to step up, kick his insensitive parents out of the house, and start acting like a father to his daughter before he loses her completely. What would you do if your in-laws acted this way a month after your spouse passed? Would you freeze up or would you kick them out immediately? Let us know in the comments!