There’s no doubt that Cinderella had it bad with her evil stepmother and nitwit stepsisters, but these real-life Reddit horror stories about wicked step-parents and inconsiderate step-siblings make the Disney princess’s familial woes look like child’s play.
You can find just about any type of horrible person on Reddit in the infamous “Am I The A—hole” forum, and there’s no shortage of awful stepmothers and terrible stepfathers on the platform. Take, for example, the stepdad who routinely allows his children to steal his diabetic stepson’s snacks out of his lunchbox — potentially life-saving snacks he needs in case of a hypoglycemic episode — then calls the boy “self-centered and anti-social” when read the riot act by his wife.
Or the stepmom who calls her stepdaughter a “b*tch” for not using the financial inheritance left to her by her deceased mother to fund her stepsisters’ college educations — you really can’t make this sh*t up. And then there’s the stepdad who works from home and asks his stepdaughter to stop studying to clean up after him rather than just putting on his big boy pants and picking up after himself like a normal person. Who else smells the pungent scent of misogyny wafting through the air?
From the totally audacious to the downright despicable, we’ve rounded up some of the most horrifying Reddit posts about step-parents who get it all wrong and don’t feel an ounce of shame in the process. Read on for your daily dose of Horrible Strangers on the Internet: Step-Parent Edition.
Demanding Her Step-Daughter Share Her Inheritance From Her Deceased Mother
After this teen girl’s life was turned upside down by the loss of her mom, her dad and stepmother had the audacity to do the unthinkable: aggressively demand she share her inheritance with them and her step-sisters.
The teen explained to Reddit that she and her mom were living together before her passing, and her mom left the house and financial assets to her. While she plans to move back into the house once she finishes college, she’s now living with her dad, his wife Jan, and her 17-year-old twin daughters.
Once her dad found out about her inheritance, OP wrote, “I haven’t heard the end of it, I’m selfish for making us all stay in a tiny flat, I’m spoiled because I won’t share my inheritance, I’m a terrible person for making the twins take out loans.”
As if the self-righteous guilt trip isn’t horrible in itself, the situation came to a head at the twins’ birthday party. OP wrote, “After [the twins] were done opening my present to them they asked me if that was really it. … It got quiet and I asked them what else they were expecting. They said Jan said that I was planning on surprising them on their birthday by telling them we were moving into my mom’s house and helping them with college.”
She continued, “My grandma asked Jan if this was true and Jan started in on me again. She asked what she could do to make me stop being a b*tch, pull my weight, help out, and be fair.” Evil stepmother vibes to the fullest!
Reddit assured her that she is not the a—hole here, with one user commenting, “OP, Jan was totally out of line. Greedy, insensitive, and manipulative. … Don’t second guess yourself. Your dad and Jan should be ashamed.”
Read about this audacious situation in full here.
Blaming His Step-Son for His Son’s Wrongdoing
Reddit put one stepdad in the doghouse for his blatant favoritism of his bio son versus his stepson. The man wrote of his two boys, “[My wife’s] son (11M) Jeremiah is a little rascal. He loves to wind up and annoy people as much as he can. He has always been like this but I tried to develop as much of a positive relationship I could with him. … My biological son (7M) Lucas is a calm, playful child. I love him more than anything in this world.”
The dad explained the issue at hand: “So basically, a couple of days ago, Jeremiah was playing with a football indoors and broke a vase. This vase had a lot of sentimental value to me as it was one of the last gifts my mother gave me before she died of cancer in 2014. He told me he didn’t do it but I did not know any better since he is known for doing this type of stuff. I scolded him for it and grounded him from using the PS5 for one week.”
He continues with a plot twist, writing, “3 days later, my biological son Lucas came up to me and admitted that it was really him who broke the vase. He looked like he felt really guilty and he didn’t mean to do it so I had no choice but to forgive him and assure him that it is okay.”
Stepdad of the year continued, “My wife pointed out that when I thought it was Jeremiah, I grounded him but when it turned out it was Lucas I did not even scold him. I know it’s a bit unfair but Jeremiah has a history of trying to wind people up so I believed a punishment would be suitable for him.” Ultimately, he wanted Reddit to determine whether or not he was an a—hole, and users collectively screamed “Yes!”
One Redditor laid it all out for OP, writing, “You should apologize to Jeremiah. You accused him of something he didn’t do. It seems that you’re punishing him because ‘he has a history of winding people up’ but that has nothing to do with the current situation. He didn’t break the vase. He didn’t deserve to be scolded or grounded.”
They continued, “You punished him based on your own prejudices and are going easy on Lucas because of your own favoritism. You need to set this right or you’ll end up with a resentful stepson and an entitled brat for a bio kid.”
For more scathing takes, check out the full post here.
Allowing His Kids to Steal His Diabetic Stepson’s Snacks
The mother of a newly-diagnosed diabetic son took to Reddit to share her totally valid frustration with her son’s step-father and step-siblings’ minimization and blatant disregard for his life-threatening condition.
After explaining that she and her ex are still figuring out how to help their son manage his condition, the mom explained that her son told her “his stepsiblings open his lunchbox and take all the additional snacks that he needs in case he had a hypoglycemic episode (that’s what we call ‘low blood sugar’)” during the car ride to school with his stepdad.
The distressed parent continued, “His stepdad thinks there’s nothing wrong with ‘sharing’ although I explained to him about a million times how important his snacks are.” His snacks are what will bring his low sugar back up to a normal level, preventing him from passing out and potentially slipping into a diabetic coma — it’s that serious. While her husband “promised” it wouldn’t happen again, it did.
“I asked [my son] if his stepdad saw [the kids taking his snacks], he said yes and [his stepdad] scolded him when he refused to let them have the snacks,” she wrote, adding that she blew up on her husband and will not let her son ride with him to school any longer.
She continued, “He lashed at me saying that I was driving a wedge between the kids and teaching my son to grow up being selfish and self-centered and anti-social.” (HE’S the one who’s self-centered?!?!) “I refused to discuss it [and] now he’s acting all hurt and disrespected saying it was not worth ruining the kids’ relationship over some snacks.”
Redditors were aghast at the stepdad’s disregard for his stepson’s health, with one user commenting, “A newly diagnosed diabetic child has major daily responsibility and everyone should be supporting him, helping him to stay safe and healthy and learn these habits. That’s a good family dynamic to foster — not ignoring his condition. It’s incredibly dangerous to disregard it. Oh, and it’s not ‘SHARING’ when you TAKE the items — that’s STEALING.”
For more (rightfully) enraged commentary on this situation, click here.
Belittling Her Step-Daughter’s College & Career Choices
One woman took to Reddit convinced the internet would be in her corner, only to have fellow users tell her just how much of an a—hole she is.
After explaining that she and her husband have been married for 5 years and each has a 21-year-old daughter from prior relationships, the woman began venting about how her husband isn’t treating the young women equally as far as funding their college educations.
OP shared that her daughter, Amy, received a scholarship, and the rest of her tuition would be paid by Amy’s father from a college savings fund, and then out of Amy’s own pocket.
Her stepdaughter, Erin, did not receive a scholarship, and OP’s husband wanted to help his daughter out of their personal savings. OP felt this was unfair to Amy because Amy wasn’t receiving help from them.
She then started belittling Erin, writing, “Erin plays violin with the local orchestra, she had her first (small) show about a month ago- we went all the way to MA because David wanted to see her perform.”
When her husband brought up the fact that Erin is “alone” at an out-of-state college, the woman wrote, “I replied that then she should’ve stayed here instead of running off to a different state, and picking up things like violin to show that she’s better than everyone. He got really mad at me for saying that, I’m just trying to be fair but AITA?”
Reddit swiftly called her out for her nasty words, with one user writing, “Your husband is right. You’ve only been together FIVE years so your daughters must have been 17 when you got together, almost adults! You and your ex are responsible for YOUR daughter and your husband is responsible for his daughter.”
They continued, “You speak derogatorily about his daughter as well, mocking her for going to school out of state, for taking up the violin. You sound resentful that your husband wanted to see her first performance? Wow.”
Another person added, “Your belittling comment about Erin playing the violin shows a massive lack of maturity.” For more critical takes on the situation, read the full story here.
Calling Her Step-Daughter Rude For Not Giving Up Her Bedroom
A 16-year-old girl confided in Reddit after her stepmom and 13-year-old stepsister moved in and started making outrageous demands.
The teen explained that her dad’s house has four bedrooms and that she spent time thoughtfully decorating her own over the years. Despite the fact that she was clearly already inhabiting the room, her stepsister declared it would be hers.
When OP told the younger girl that the room wasn’t available, “She immediately started flipping out [and] she started yelling saying she was gonna tell her mom and my dad that I’m being mean to her and trying to bully her because she was younger,” she wrote.
The teen continued, “Her mom and my dad came into the room due to all the yelling and asked what was going on and so I told them that she thinks my room is hers and she won’t leave but she said that this has to be her room because it’s her favorite color purple and it has a bathroom so it has to be hers.”
Her dad said another room could easily be painted purple, but her stepmom said “that I have had this room for a very long time and can just restart in the other room and I should give it to her since she’s younger,” OP recounted. “I told her that I won’t give up my room because this has all my stuff and I’m comfortable in my room so her daughter will have to go to the other only available room.”
She explained that her stepmom is calling her rude and is telling her to be the bigger person, and that although her dad is on her side, he thinks she’s old enough to speak for herself.
Redditors had nothing but sympathy for the teen, with one user writing, “No one thought to discuss these things before they moved in? He thinks it’s okay for his new wife and SD to make obnoxious demands, and to step back and largely leave it up to 16yo OP to deal with it all?”
They continued, “‘Old enough to talk for myself’ or not, he’s throwing OP in the deep end and leaving her to sink or swim while he pretends nothing is wrong.” Read more reactions to this stepmom horror story here.
Asking His Step-Daughter to Clean Up After Him
One mom took to Reddit to explain the mindblowing situation happening between her work-from-home husband and college student daughter. After explaining that the young woman often comes home to study, the mom revealed that her daughter had begun complaining about her stepdad routinely asking her to clean up after him.
She wrote, “Husband would knock saying ‘Hey, I just had lunch, could you please clean up the table? I’m starting a meeting.’ Or ‘I spilled some water, mind wiping it, I gotta focus on work!’” OP told her daughter to ignore him the next time it happened, and when another instance (unsurprisingly) occurred, the woman confronted her husband.
After putting the blame on his step-daughter, the mom wrote, “I jumped at my husband, telling him daughter has exams and came here to learn, not to clean up after him. He tried to defend himself saying he had an urgent meeting. I told him he could’ve came to clean up afterwards and mentioned I know it’s not the first time it’s happening.”
The man of course got defensive and resorted to gaslighting. “My husband sighed and said he thought it’s not a big deal for my daughter to spare a couple minutes to quickly put the dishes in the dishwasher or something like that,” OP wrote, adding that her daughter thought, “[If] it could be done so quickly, why didn’t he do it?”
Reddit totally agreed — one person responded, “Wow NTA your husband is being very sexist and entitled. Why should your daughter clean up HIS mess. That’s crazy!!”
Another user chimed in with, “Sounds like he has horrible (or excellent) time management skills if he can always just finish eating but just doesn’t have the time to clean up after himself before his important meetings.”
Read more Redditors’ roasts for this lazy, misogynistic stepdad here.
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