Family relationships are complicated; we don't have to explain them to you. After all, typically in friend groups, people are more similar and flock together, while in family settings, various kinds of people are forced to interact. So, it's natural for certain disagreements to arise.
The family from today's story is no exception. A man accused his son-in-law of a hate crime, if you could call it that within a family, and denounced him publicly, only to find out later he wasn't guilty. Read up to find out how the situation was (or wasn't) resolved.
More info: Reddit
Since families are essentially made up of people who are very different from each other, some disagreements are bound to happen
Image credits: eberhardgross / Freepik (not the actual photo)
In this family, the disagreement streak started when one woman got a hate email
Image credits: dikushin / Freepik (not the actual photo)
With a little investigation, the man deduced that it must have been his son-in-law who sent it
Image credits: malik21nalik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
He banned his son-in-law from his home and from any upcoming family events, and denounced him online
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Turns out, it wasn't the son-in-law who had sent the hate email; it was the other cousin's kids
Image credits: ThrowRALakeHouse2
So, the son-in-law demanded that the man apologize, which he refused to do, making his daughter torn between her father and her husband
The OP’s in-laws have a lake house, where the family likes to go for their vacations. Four years ago, when all of them were staying there, the wife's cousin got a nasty email, which made her cry. From that point on, things were never the same.
You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that insults, harassment, or anything else along similar lines aren’t good for a person’s mental health. When it’s done online, a perpetrator can easily hide their face and identity, saving themselves from consequences.
Well, in today’s story, the perpetrator, or at least the person the family thought was responsible, was found pretty easily. You see, the original poster’s father-in-law works in IT, so he was able to trace where the nasty email came from. The creator of it used an Android phone, which was located in the lake house. The in-laws are loyal Apple users, while the OP has an Android, so it was deduced that he must be the author of said email.
The FIL accused the OP in front of everyone, and when the man wanted to defend his honor, he didn’t pay attention to the proof. The man was banned from the father-in-law’s home. But the “punishment” didn’t end here.
The in-law also made a big post denouncing the original poster, spoke badly about him to his kids, and excluded him from every single holiday.
Image credits: DC Studio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Again, being excluded from family activities and holidays can be quite detrimental to a person. Some suggest that a person who’s been left out should seek other ways to form connections and find another community. But how could today’s OP do that when his wife and kids are involved in those activities and he isn’t? It’s not like he could cut them out. Plus, he wasn’t even guilty of the “crime” he was excommunicated for.
And soon this truth came to light, when the cousin got another nasty email, but there was no way the OP could’ve sent it. Instead, the father-in-law finally found the actual perpetrators – the other cousin’s kids. They were simply doing it as a prank, not realizing it could be traced.
Consensus on pranks is quite divided – some people say that all of them are harmful, while others argue that some can be mild. Well, the way today’s story unfolded, the point falls in the first group's court.
Yet, the story didn’t end with the revelation of innocence. The OP demanded that his father-in-law make a public apology, just as he made his denouncement public. Such a thought wasn’t met with much thrill – the family said that they would prefer just to move forward and not do anything of this kind. The original poster didn’t agree with this.
So, it led his wife to be torn between her birth family and her husband. The man felt bad about making her feel this way, and that’s why he ended up on Reddit, asking people what to do.
As you could’ve guessed, netizens full-heartedly supported the OP. In their eyes, the FIL messed up badly with his accusation, and so he has to own up to that mistake. There is no moving forward without an apology.
The son-in-law came online to consult what to do in this situation, and netizens assured him that he was standing on the right ground
