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He stood up for his wife.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Dec 11, 2022
A man is being defended over his decision to kick out members of his family from his wedding after they took a joke too far.
Posting to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA) — a forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them — he described the events leading up to his wedding.
In his Reddit post, the man, 33, wrote that he comes from a large family, mostly made up of aunts and female cousins, along with his mom, stepmom, stepsister, and grandmother.
He explained that all of the women in his family are notorious for pulling pranks and are "into teasing and joking."
"They've formed a unit (which I admit is kind of toxic) and they'd tease and roast every new woman that enters the family by marriage by setting up 'tests' to see if they deserve to be part of the family," he revealed.
When the man first met his girlfriend, now wife, he explicitly told his family they weren't allowed to go after her or harass her in any way.
Despite his warning, his family didn't listen and proceeded to "roast her looks and job" behind his back on Facebook.
When he found out, he forced them all to apologize to her, telling them that if they didn't, he would uninvite them to their wedding.
"Everyone immediately apologized and brought gifts for my wife," he shared. Though, things would eventually take a turn for the worse.
On the day of the wedding, the man's family tried to pull a prank by showing up to the ceremony wearing all white.
Before the man was set to marry his girlfriend, he found out that the women in his family were putting together a "prank" for the day of the wedding.
They were conspiring to wear all-white, calling it the "ultimate test" to see how the bride would react.
"My brother warned me so I announced that if anyone of them showed up in white I'd have them kicked out including [my] mom."
When he confronted his family members, they assured him it wasn't true and that they would never do such a thing, but on the day of his wedding, they all showed up one at a time wearing white.
When the man noticed that they were showing up wearing white, he promptly started to kick them out as they arrived.
When he tried to make his mom and aunts leave, they refused, but he was adamant.
"I threatened to take harsher action and [my] mom was pissed telling me to step aside but I didn't let her in," he recalled. "I had her leave while the men in the family were watching stunned, [my] dad was on my side and supported me a lot."
The man's wife was "hurt" by the actions of his family and their idea of a "prank," while the women in his family were furious about being kicked out.
"My cousin blasted me on social media later saying I excluded all the women from the wedding because my wife was so insecure she couldn't handle another woman's presence at her wedding."
The man tried to argue that they had taken their jokes a little too far, but his mother was firm in her belief that it was all supposed to be in good fun.
"I stopped talking after she said I had to bring my wife and apologize. I haven't seen the lot of them in 2 weeks and they've excluded me from everything," he concluded.
A majority of people who commented on the man's Reddit post agreed that he was NTA (Not The A-hole).
"Your family is toxic and I am so sad for your wife that they would do that, but also so happy for her that she has a husband who will support her and have her back," one user wrote.
Another user added, "A prank is only a prank if everyone ends up laughing. Otherwise, it's just bullying. Good on you for standing your ground and supporting your wife. Please remember that you didn't ruin the day, everyone else did. "
"This level of hazing has crossed the line to emotional abuse & blackmail. And that is probably understating it," a third user chimed in.
"It's very good you stood up for your spouse. You handled it well but emotional blackmailers use family to pressure the victims into compliance with the abuse."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.