A man found himself in a unique situation. Despite not having the same "worthwhile skills" as his father-in-law, he was able to prove his worth in a way he hadn't expected, as detailed in his Reddit post.
*This is a work of non-fiction sourced from social media discussion boards and verified experts/specialists.*
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The author begins by explaining that his father-in-law is a more "handy" kind of guy; knowledgeable in plumbing, joinery, and electrics. The author, on the other hand, has more IT-based skills. As such, the author often gets asked to fix the printer, or the internet connection.
This sort of skill trading, however, doesn’t seem to equal out in the father-in-law’s eyes, as the author explains further:
"He has often helped me and my wife with matters in our home (leaky pipe, some plastering work etc), and we have always been grateful and appreciative of his efforts. However, he spares no opportunity whatsoever to take shots at my lack of "worthwhile skills". He'll say (often in front of family and friends) that I'm not a real man, or that I'd be useless in an emergency, that sort of thing.”
Being humiliated in front of family can negatively affect one's mental health and relationships, as detailed by Emerald Insight. And according to a study published in the journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology, those who experienced public humiliation reported greater levels of shame, anger, and depression, as well as decreased family connectedness and relationship satisfaction.
Recently, however, the author got his chance to prove himself. On a family visit to his father-in-law’s home, the author was asked to look at his laptop, which had a virus.
After some time troubleshooting, the author was able to get the laptop back to normal, but not without noticing his father-in-law's internet history, which included a lot of adult material. He details the incident:
"It was out of my mouth before I had even finished processing the thought. 'Loads of these [adult] websites have a lot of viruses and dodgy stuff, I'll get you a membership from my Norton account’.”
Following his controversial words, the tension was palpable, and the author and his wife left shortly after. He concludes:
“My wife gave me both barrels in the car, but I said he is always giving me hassle and I keep my mouth shut. Things have been frosty ever since, and I wonder if I went too far.”
Since then, the relationship between the author and his father-in-law has been frosty.
What do you think?
Was the author justified to give back the energy his father-in-law was giving him all these years, by pointing out his own skillset after being belittled in front of family so many times?
Or is his wife right in that he shouldn’t have embarrassed his father-in-law the way he did, and he definitely crossed the line?
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