Old Enough To Know Better?
I have three kids: a 15-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl, and a seven-year-old boy. My oldest has always been a cuddler, and that suits me fine because I am too. Recently my in-laws were over and we were all watching a movie together. It was a kid’s movie, and so my 15-year-old was bored out of her mind and tired, so she started to snuggle up to me and go to sleep.
After the movie was over, we sent all the kids to bed and sat around chatting for a bit longer. There was a fair bit of drinking involved (I was sober though), and eventually, after a short silence, my father-in-law made a shocking criticism: He told me that it was inappropriate that I still cuddled with my daughter. I don’t really know why he brought it up suddenly, but I was prepared to laugh it off and just assumed it was the drinking.
To my surprise, my wife and mother-in-law both agreed with him. I have a lot of respect for my in-laws, I get along with them great and I consider them closer than my own parents. Obviously, I’m quite fond of my wife as well, but I outright told them to screw off and then left them and went to bed. I’ve never spoken to any of them like that before, but it felt like the right thing to say in the moment.
They all want me to apologize for being so rude to them.