Imagine telling your nephew the bombastic news that he’s adopted.

That’s what happened to this woman when her nephew put two and two together and figured out he is adopted because of how she responded to his question.

After a lot of backlash, she’s left wondering if it’s all her fault.

Let’s analyze the situation.

AITA (26F) for telling my nephew (14M) that he is adopted?

Context – my brother “Billy” (41, M) and his wife “Chloe” (39, F) adopted their son “Ryan”(14, M) when he was a newborn.

When my brother and sister-in-law (SIL) adopted Ryan they decided not to tell him that he was adopted until he was old enough to understand.

It’s important to understand that Ryan is a really smart kid. He’s crazy smart.

This will be relevant later.

Last Friday, we all went round to my parent’s house for dinner.

This included myself, Billy, Chloe, Ryan, my older sister “Ella” (32, F) and our parents.

After dinner, we all kind of separated into different rooms to chill.

My nephew and I are both into Minecraft and he was showing me his new world on his iPad.

She was not expecting him to ask such a serious question out of the blue.

We were just chatting about normal stuff when he asked “So why do you think my parents adopted me?” very, very casually.

I was caught very off guard because my brother and SIL hadn’t mentioned anything about telling him.

I didn’t know what the heck to say and how they’d explained it to him so all I said was “This is something I’d speak to your parents about mate,” verbatim.

He nodded and said “yeah” and changed the subject.

But he picked up on something.

Not long after, my brother and Chloe came in and said they were heading home.

I didn’t want to mention it in front of Ryan, so I thought I’d shoot them a message once they’re home.

When they left, I mentioned it to my parents and Ella, who were also shocked that Chloe and Billy hadn’t mentioned telling him to them either so none of us were prepared to answer any questions he may have.

That’s their fault.

I messaged Billy and in under 1 minute Chloe was on the phone swearing and screeching like a banshee.

It turns out that Ryan had NOT been told that he was adopted and by saying “You should speak to your parents about this” I actually did tell him and I should have said that he’s NOT adopted.

Did she, though?

I’m not sure why Ryan asked, but he’s a smart kid, he must have had some kind of inkling, which is why instead of asking directly, he asked my opinion on why.

That was Friday evening, Chloe went insane down the phone, I could hear Billy in the background saying that I was out of line and I’m not a parent, so I don’t understand the gravity of what I’ve done etc.

Things escalated quickly.

It’s now Wednesday evening and my family is still divided and not communicating properly.

My parents understand my point of view but our sister, Ella, is saying that I’m an idiot that was “manipulated by a teenager” and has called me a complete ******* for stepping on his parents’ toes.

I’ve had Chloe’s family message me over the weekend, calling me all sorts of names.

Now she’s wondering if she is in the wrong.

I’ve been told I’m not allowed to their anniversary party next month, etc.

All this to say, it’s a complete and utter **** show.

Right now, it looks like they’re going no contact with me.

AITA??

He is clearly smart enough to put the pieces together himself.

His parents lied to him, but she did not, and he simply figured it out on his own.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Exactly.

This commenter shares their point of view.

Someone shares a similar story.

Another reader chimes in.

A hot take.

It’s best he finds out now rather than later.

Hopefully, they will realize she didn’t do anything wrong.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.