"She Hasn't Stopped Crying": Man Cancels Honeymoon After Wife Edited His Son Out Of Wedding Pics

A marriage is a union between more than just two people. It binds together their relatives as well. So when Reddit user JeffJeffery02 noticed what he interpreted as a sign of his wife trying to exclude one-of-if-not-the closest person to him, the man was furious.

In a post on the subreddit 'Am I the [Jerk?]', he explained that during their honeymoon, he noticed his son (who he had with his previous partner) was cut out from many of the wedding photos. The man shared this with his wife, and she told him that it was her idea.

Women died in childbirth and men died working; stepfamilies have been around virtually as long as families have.

Life was brutal and short, and in order to survive, parents tried to find another partner pretty quickly.

According to Lawrence Ganong, an emeritus professor of human development at the University of Missouri who has studied stepfamilies for decades, for most of human history, stepparents functioned as replacement parents—not necessarily in children's affections, but in assuming the duties of the deceased mother or father.

In the 1970s, however, Ganong says the number of post-divorce stepfamilies began to outnumber post-bereavement stepfamilies, and with both biological parents in the picture, the stepparent role became less cut-and-dried.

What that looks like varies from family to family, but typically it means that although the stepparent might offer advice or compassion to their stepkids or spouse as needed, they stay out of big decisions, such as where the child will attend school or whether they are allowed to get a smartphone. The stepparent might help the stepchild with their homework or some other task upon request, but probably won't nag the child to focus if they get distracted. And while the stepparent always looks out for the child's physical safety, they usually don't monitor screen time or hygiene or otherwise manage their well-being—that's the bio parent's responsibility.

In reality, the lines are often blurry and while it might be not as drastic as in this Reddit post, building a functioning and healthy stepfamily takes time and effort.