Man’s Life Turns Upside Down After MIL Decides Her Granddaughter Is Old Enough To Learn The Family Secret

The truth is bound to come out. It might take a while, but sooner or later, people find out what’s been hidden from them—and often at the worst possible moment for the schemers.

This story is about a husband and wife who kept their affair a secret from their daughter for a decade in hopes of preserving the family. However, the teen’s grandma decided she was old enough to know and told the girl her version of what had happened.

The teenager couldn’t stay quiet and confronted both of her parents—one for being too egotistical and the other for not doing anything about it.

This couple thought they had put the wife’s infidelity behind them

Image credits: The Yuri Arcurs Collection (Not the actual photo)

But after their teenage daughter learned the truth, the entire family was once again plunged into conflict

Image credits: wavebreakmedia_micro (Not the actual photo)

Image credits: Throwaway28471937

The teenager’s reaction doesn’t sound unnatural

Studies suggest that affairs are both a cause and a consequence of difficulties in a partnership, including hostile conflicts, and some experts think that affairs may sometimes also serve as a “mechanism” to avoid open conflict, especially if the spouses themselves grew up in an environment where emotional honesty was discouraged.

Either way, it’s difficult to blame the daughter for her reaction to the news, as children and adolescents often respond to their parents’ affairs with self-blame, sadness, confusion, and fear, says psychotherapist Fiona Yassin, founder and clinical director of The Wave Clinic, a residential mental health facility in Southeast Asia that focuses on helping teenagers and young adults.

Even if they try to downplay it, the impact of such a situation is just too significant.

“According to family systems theory, families work as a system where the well-being and behaviors of each family member affect every other member and the system as a whole,” Yassin explains. “This means that conflict in parents’ relationships also affects parent-child relationships and the family’s dynamics. Young people may start to play inappropriate and harmful roles in the family.”

“For children who are almost entirely dependent upon their parents, disruptions in the family system may be understood as a threat to their safety and even survival,” Yassin adds. “This may lead to intense distress.”

It’s also normal that the girl went after her mom. “Adolescents are … more likely to hold one parent responsible for the affair. This can change the loyalties and dynamics within the family system,” the psychotherapist says.

“In some cases, adolescents may take on a caring or supportive role for parents who [they perceive] are hurt or harmed. This can lead to parentification and parent-child role reversal, creating burdens and responsibilities that are inappropriate for their developmental age.”

Image credits: freepik (Not the actual photo)

As reactions kept pouring in, the dad engaged with people in the comments

A year after sharing his story, the man returned with an update

Image credits: The Yuri Arcurs Collection (Not the actual photo)

Image credits: freepik (Not the actual photo)

Image credits: Throwaway28471937

Many relationships, like this one, don’t end immediately after one partner cheats on the other

According to one large YouGov self-reported survey, having been cheated on is apparently more common than having cheated—even though not everyone who has been cheated on knows it.

One-third (33%) of respondents who have been in a monogamous relationship admitted to cheating—either physically, emotionally, or both. However, when asked about their experiences of being cheated on, more than half (54%) claimed to have been victims—either physically, emotionally, or both.

And whatever you might think of the husband’s reaction to his wife’s infidelity, many in his position try to preserve the relationship.

When asked if they had ever broken up with someone who cheated on them, three in four (75%) YouGov respondents who had been in that position said they had, while one in five (21%) said they had never broken up with a partner who cheated. Plus, more than one-third (39%) of those who broke up with a cheater say they eventually got back together with them.

Interestingly, half (52%) of respondents who were cheated on said that it was actually that partner who eventually broke up with them. So, in that sense, the ending of this particular story is fairly common, too.

Image credits: rawpixel.com (Not the actual photo)

People praised the daughter for facing the family’s problems head-on

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