Everyone makes mistakes. Some are big, others are small. Some embarrass us, and some can for sure ruin our lives.
In this day and age, is liking a scantily-clad internet picture the worst of the worst? That’s what OP wants to know!
He lives with his grown daughter and tries to keep up with her life and friends, though he also gives her the space she needs to live her life.
My (55M) daughter (21F) still lives at home, but has full autonomy here. But I like to know what’s going on, so when she texted that she’s bringing a few friends over after school, it wasn’t to ask permission… just to let us know there might be a few more people over for dinner.
No prob… who, I asked? She mentioned a few names I recognized and one I didn’t. Let’s call her Sally. Who’s Sally? Just another friend from Uni.
OK, sounds good, see you later.
She let him know that she was having friends over, and since there was one name he didn’t recognize, he decided to look her up online.
My idle curiosity led me to Instagram, just wondering who Sally is.
I looked up my daughter’s IG list of who she follows, and found only one Sally whose profile indicated she attended the same Uni as my daughter.
Obviously her.
There, he found she was very active and had a ton of followers on her page that was largely her looking sexy on vacation.
That would’ve been it, except her profile caught my attention… because unlike most of her friends who have them set on private, this one was wide open to the public and it’s one of these typical young-beautiful-woman profiles full of selfies in exotic clothes and poses.
I scroll down a bit and of course there are beach pics from last summer and like any normal red-blooded male, it catches my attention.
He tries to make a distinction between finding someone attractive and being attracted to them, and also puts forth some statements about “red-blooded male,” but the end result was him accidentally liking a bikini photo.
No, I’m not into girls my daughter’s age, I’m not some perv. But when those sorts of pictures show up on your phone, most guys would be lying if they told you it didn’t catch their attention for a closer look.
Anyway, I pause the scroll there and I screw up because I double tap it, and that dreaded big red “LIKE” heart shows up, right on some very revealing bikini pic.
He immediately unliked it but now he’s sweating that she’s going to see it and tell his daughter, and then his life will be over.
My actual heart actually stops for a moment too, I’m sure of it. I instantly unlike it, but, of course, the damage is done. Somewhere, Sally’s phone just got a notification that some user whose account shares the same last name as my daughter — liked that pic.
So, Sally will mention this to my daughter and I will be a dead man, and that’s it. It’s been nice knowing you all.
I realize there may be a saving grace here, which is that Sally, with her 20k followers and thousands of likes per pic might have notifications turned off, in which case this is a non-issue. Or, she gets so many notifications, she won’t notice because she ignores them and then clears them in bunches. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking. Or, as per above, I’m dead. I don’t really see many other alternatives.
For the moment, until I hear anything from someone, I feel like I’m anywhere from totally in the clear… to dead. Like I’m strapped into Schrödinger’s Electric Chair, waiting to find out which way the lever will fall.
Does Reddit have any soothing advice? Do they think he should suffer the consequences of his red-blooded male actions? Let’s find out!
The top comment says they think this is accepted Boomer/GenX Dad behavior. Oh well.
Image Credit: Reddit
This commenter wonders if OP would find everything so harmless if it were his daughter in the pic.
Image Credit: Reddit
And this person has judgment for days.
Image Credit: Reddit
They say he doesn’t need to worry because the notification likely won’t show up.
Image Credit: Reddit
But this person says that’s not true, and he might be in trouble.
Image Credit: Reddit
So, the jury seems to be out.
But I mean, actions do have consequences, Maybe he’ll think a bit harder next time.