This Reddit Girlfriend Was a Little Too Brave When Meeting Her Boyfriend’s Parents — & You’ll Feel So Bad for This Mom
It’s normal to feel nervous when meeting your significant other’s parents — or when meeting your child’s significant other. It can be awkward, sure, and maybe a little intimidating. You want to make a good impression, you hope they like you, you hope you like them. But one girlfriend on Reddit just won the award for worst meet-the-parents line, ever, and just reading it will make you cringe.
In the “Am I The A—hole?” subreddit, a 56-year-old mom wrote about how she kicked her 24-year-old son and his girlfriend out of her house after a disastrous first meeting. But read on to find out why it was justified — because seriously, our jaws are still on the floor after reading what this young woman said to her boyfriend’s parents.
First, a little backstory: the son and his girlfriend have been dating for about a year, and “he’s been crazy about her.” This is the first time the parents are meeting her, but they’ve heard all about her. “She just got her degree, was enjoying her job, family-oriented, etc., I’m honestly just glad he’s happy with her,” the mom wrote. “My husband and I don’t think he’s ever been this into someone before, so I feel pretty bad about what I did.”
So, let’s set the scene. It’s dinner time. The parents are excited to meet this person who their son “has been gushing about” and saying “how perfect she is, that she’s ‘the one.’” It’s a pretty big deal!
Then they ring the bell, and well, it all goes downhill from there.
“We open the door. She looks exactly like her pictures, which is a great start. My son is grinning ear to ear – another great start. We invite them in. She accepts my hug and a firm handshake from my husband, and then she opens her mouth,” the mom wrote.
The first words she spoke? “I’m the one your son puts his penis in.”
Um … ma’am? In what universe is that the first thing you feel like telling your boyfriend’s mom? How incredibly uncomfortable for everyone involved. And what is the mom supposed to say in response? “Oh cool, I’m the one whose vagina he squeezed through?” The whole thing is just so unnecessarily cringey.
“To be frank, I was appalled,” the mom continued. Frankly, we would be too — and we aren’t even pearl-clutchers. “I expected my husband to laugh (both he and my son are jokesters, and as annoying as it can be I love it) but THIS was just too much for me. Maybe I’m reserved, but of all things she could have shared about my son she told us THAT.”
The mom went on, “I felt like he’d sold me the full package, everything he’d always been looking for in a girlfriend. I was too disturbed by the visual it put in my head, and it translated into anger.” So, like any sane person would do, the mom kicked her out. “I told her to get out, and I wanted to say more about how gross it made me feel but I fortunately left it at that. My son didn’t want to go, insisting I give her another chance, but I was too fed up and uncomfortable by this point,” she said.
Later, the mom started second-guessing her reaction. “This was something my son had really looked forward to and I feel like I took that away over a dumb joke,” she said, adding that she tried to call and apologize but her son won’t answer. “My husband thinks she’s the one who should apologize,” she said. “I’m considering giving her another chance, but before I do, was I the AH?”
If you ask us (and Reddit!) the answer is a resounding NTA.
“I’m pretty liberal, and open minded, but FFS I’d never lead with that meeting my BF’s parents for the first time. Or say that, EVER,” one person said. “Like, seriously? You opened the door and that’s what flies out of her mouth? Was she nervous? Did she seem embarrassed at all? Did she try to apologize? Is there anything that could explain her inappropriate outburst? You apologized. Wow. Hats off to you.” So true.
Another said, “I’m as liberal as you can get and I seriously can’t fathom how the GF expected a comment like that to go?!?! OP’s answer should be ‘I’m the one your father puts his penis in’ and see how that flies. NTA.” Exactly, so weird!
“Seriously. I’m married with a kid, my in-laws obviously know that I’ve had sex with their daughter,” another person said. “The number of times I’ve mentioned our sex life to them is zero. Because just WTF, who does that shit?” Right? Joking about your sex life just shouldn’t be a thing with your partner’s parents, it’s weird!
Someone else wondered if her jokester son put the girlfriend up to it. The mom responded to that comment, writing, “This honestly wouldn’t surprise me but I’m not gonna lie I’d be disappointed in him. That’s not something he’d ever say in front of me directly because he knows I’m not a fan of any of personal jokes of that nature.” She continued, “So to make his girlfriend say it wouldn’t be very good and I’d hope that if that is the case that he makes it up to her somehow. I’ll try to reach out again to let them know we can try again. That possibility makes me feel 1000 times worse.”
Another person pointed out that nobody really won in this scenario. “ESH. The gf made an inappropriate joke,” they wrote. “I don’t know why. Possibly her family makes those kind of jokes so she thought it’d be fine. Maybe your son put her up to it. Maybe they both agreed it’d be funny. It crossed a line for you and that’s fine. But kicking her out so quickly was a complete overreaction. Ignoring it and just carrying on like it didn’t happen or even just pointing out the inappropriateness of it would have been fine. But your reaction was too much.”
“That’s just incredibly rude of her and telling her to leave was a valid response,” someone else said.
Either way, it seems like the mom is trying to go for a second chance now. Hopefully the girlfriend will show a little less bravery this time and go with a standard, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you” instead. And maybe one day, far, far into the future, they can all laugh about this.
Before you go, check out some of Reddit’s most ridiculous grown children.