Navigating family time is like walking a tightrope, where each step keeps the peace intact. It’s vital that no family member monopolizes a parent’s attention, especially in larger families with diverse needs. However, this delicate balance can be upset when a parent focuses solely on a newfound family member, neglecting established relationships.
In today’s story, a father discovered he had a teenage daughter from a past relationship, stirring up joy, confusion, and challenges all at the same time. He strived to maintain equilibrium, fostering bonds with both his existing children and his newfound daughter. Despite his efforts, tensions kept rising as the teenager demanded attention and resisted sharing her father.
Scroll down below to read the story!
1. But why would a father say such a thing to his daughter? Let’s find out.
2. One time in his university life, OP dated a woman named Margot. The two broke up when she transferred to a different university.
3. With that chapter over, proceeding with life, OP got married to his wife of 10 years, Cathy, and has three children with er.
4. A decade into his happy marriage, one day OP received a friend request from Margot on Facebook. He accepted the request and she quickly sent a message requesting a telephonic conversation.
5. On the call, Margot revealed she and OP had a 16-year-old daughter, Paige. OP went into shock.
6. Margot managed to convince OP to take a DNA test, and he took one after Cathy’s consent. It turns out, Paige is OP’s daughter.
7. Margot thought she wouldn’t need OP’s help to bring her daughter up, but as she was growing up, she wanted to know the truth about her father, so she had to engage OP.
8. OP agreed to start a relationship with Paige, which at first was a tough train to catch, but eventually things took off at a off at a good pace.
9. Paige spends a lot of time with OP. So much that she doesn’t like his existing children spending time with him. A big problem.
10. Whenever OP would invite Paige to join family events or activities, she would turn down the offers as she would prefer to spend time with her father only.
I can understand Paige’s perspective, but this is kind of unfair to OP’s children with Cathy. They did nothing wrong to deserve a scenario where they were left unattended. OP didn’t know Paige existed; he would’ve kept everything balanced had he known he had another daughter.
Also, I think Margot is now back and has finally revealed Paige to OP because she is about to enter her higher education phase of life, and to sustain that phase, you need money. Perhaps this is the reason why Margot is back.
11. One time Paige caused a drama by asking OP not to attend his son’s basketball game and instead spend time with her. OP refused.
12. She even told her father the kids could do without him for a few years because they already got to spend so much time with him.
13. She said she never asked for siblings. OP said this is a reality she has to live with because her siblings didn’t know she existed either.
14. No matter what efforts OP made to make things better, Paige refused to cooperate. The matter was taken to the courts of the AITA community.
Here’s what the AITA community had to say about this:
15. Yes, Paige never asked for siblings, but OP didn’t ask for a child who was kept hidden from him for 16 years either.
16. That was an insensitive statement.
17. OP is doing a great job balancing things between his children. He is not required to put in more effort than that.
18. This could be very true.
19. Perhaps Margot’s intentions are evil.
20. That would actually help. The family is in dire need of therapy.
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