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Stepdaughters’ Gift Pushes Woman To Her Limits, Shares Conversation With Her Husband That Goes Viral
People are wired differently. What may be hilarious to one may be hurtful and tasteless to another. And the worst thing you can do is to invalidate the feelings of the person you offended.
This woman knows these feelings all too well, having experienced them firsthand with her immediate family. After enduring mocking pranks from her stepdaughters and her husband’s gaslighting during her birthday, she requested some distance from all of them.
But, instead of showing any understanding, the husband somehow found a way to make himself look like the victim.
RELATED:
What may seem like a “harmless” prank for one person can greatly offend another
Image credits: jcfotograf/Envato (not the actual photo)
For this family, what was deemed a practical joke turned into a huge problem
The author posted screenshots of how the conversation with the husband went
Image credits: Image-Source/Envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Proud-Cantaloupe3449
Pranks can open a person’s old wounds and deep-seated issues
Pranks are highly subjective, and that’s what makes them problematic. The person doing it will likely find it hilarious and harmless, without knowing how it affects the individual on the receiving end.
They are unaware that such jokes may be triggering, to the point that they can reopen old wounds.
“Pranks can trigger past trauma, cause hypervigilance, or an erosion of trust in a relationship,” author and therapist Dr. Stephanie Sarkis wrote in an article for Psychology Today, adding that practical jokes done in bad taste can also be an attempt to gain control over partners or family members.
Image credits: simonapilolla/Envato (not the actual photo)
According to Dr. Sarkis, any pranks that harm a person psychologically and negatively affect the relationship are not worth doing.
Meanwhile, gaslighting also has a profound effect on the person receiving them. According to clinical psychologist Dr. Joni Johnston, it rewires their brain to default to self-doubt. Worse, they become hypervigilant and are unable to trust the overcautiousness they feel.
Dr. Johnston notes that people who have gone through gaslighting often have brain scans that are similar to those with PTSD. She adds that recovering from it requires external validation and rebuilding a narrative.
The author likely won’t be able to do these things in her current environment, and distancing herself was the right decision. The husband should have been more understanding instead of playing the victim.
The author also provided more information in the comments
Some commenters had opinions against the husband
However, there were a few who thought the author may have overreacted
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What do you think ?
Danni 4 hours ago
Being insulted and hurt by an insulting and mean action is not overreacting.. it's simply reacting. She cannot "parent" her husbands teenage girls, who are we kidding, they don't respect her and she has zero authority with them and zero support from her spouse who justifies or excuses the girls behavior, and then plays the victim. A very sad situation for her.
Upstaged75 4 hours ago
I hope she left him. He deserves to be stuck alone with his awful daughters.
Nitka Tsar 1 hour ago
Yeah, taking their phones away, so they’ll resent HER for it. How intelligent of him. It sounds like he is just like his daughters. He does not understand why their behavior is bad and does not punish them by his own conviction. They feel that, so don’t change their behavior. Which comes down to the root that he does not seam to respect his wive and maybe does not really love her….. It sounds like they should split.
Danni 4 hours ago
Being insulted and hurt by an insulting and mean action is not overreacting.. it's simply reacting. She cannot "parent" her husbands teenage girls, who are we kidding, they don't respect her and she has zero authority with them and zero support from her spouse who justifies or excuses the girls behavior, and then plays the victim. A very sad situation for her.
Upstaged75 4 hours ago
I hope she left him. He deserves to be stuck alone with his awful daughters.
Nitka Tsar 1 hour ago
Yeah, taking their phones away, so they’ll resent HER for it. How intelligent of him. It sounds like he is just like his daughters. He does not understand why their behavior is bad and does not punish them by his own conviction. They feel that, so don’t change their behavior. Which comes down to the root that he does not seam to respect his wive and maybe does not really love her….. It sounds like they should split.
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