This happened a while ago, but I still think about it and want to crawl into a hole. I (18F at the time) was dating a guy named Jacob (18M), and after a month of dating, his family invited me over for dinner. Seemed like a sweet, normal southern family—dad was a mechanic, mom a stay-at-home wife, two older siblings, and a newborn niece.
Everything was going fine. We were talking about blood donation (I volunteered at my college’s blood drive), and Jacob’s dad proudly mentioned he’s O negative—a universal donor. Jacob chimed in that he’s also O. Then casually, his siblings say they’re both AB.
Now, I’m a bit of a biology nerd, so without thinking, I asked something like: “Oh! Is your mom A and dad B? Or vice versa?” assuming their biological dad was someone else (because Jacob told me his mom had a previous marriage).
And then the room went dead quiet.
Jacob’s sister looked confused and said, “What do you mean? He’s our dad,” pointing to Jacob’s current dad.
That’s when I realized I might’ve just accidentally uncovered something… big.
Their dad got really quiet. His face just dropped. And then he asked me flat out why I said “bio dad.” I tried to backpedal, but it was too late. One Google search from Jacob later, and it all unraveled. His mom turned pale, started crying. His brother started yelling. His sister left with her baby. Jacob was somewhere between furious and heartbroken.
Turns out, after some paternity tests later, none of the kids were biologically his. Not even Jacob. The parents divorced soon after, and Jacob and I didn’t last either.
All because I asked one innocent question about blood types over mashed potatoes.
Confession: I accidentally blew up my boyfriend’s family by casually dropping 9th-grade biology at dinner. I’ll never ask another genetics question again.