Imagine being young and broke while also being married with two young children. Then imagine being remarried when those children are all grown up. You have a new baby and are much better off financially.

What would you do if one of your adult children complained about how much your new wife was spending on the baby?

In this story, one dad was in this situation, and his words to his daughter only pushed her away instead of helping her understand his perspective.

Let’s read all about it.

AITA for saying I’m a better dad this time around? My daughter took it the wrong way.

I was 28 and my ex wife was 27 when we had our daughter (26). Our son was born 3 years later.

We were both young and saddled with financial problems. I was working 80+ hour weeks to climb the ladder and to at least make my expensive degree worth it.

My ex wife and I fought all the time because I felt pressured to marry after she got pregnant and I felt she could have worked more.

Therefore, growing up my two older kids did have to experience me coming home at 10pm, missing award ceremonies, and cancelling vacation plans. I also find it crazy how I berated my kids for academic performance in a way I could never imagine doing so now.

It sounds like a very stressful time.

I fought with my ex wife about money and would sometimes return clothes she bought for the kids when I saw they came from department stores rather than stores with Target level affordability because I didn’t get why kids needed that.

I also took arguments into screaming matches and left in a very bad way.

I admit I have a strained relationship that I’m now repairing with my kids.

My daughter now comes over to the house I share with my new wife a couple times a month and sometimes stays over.

He’s in a much better financial situation now.

My wife (28) just gave birth a year ago. I’m now in a high level position at my company so I can step out whenever and get myself days off so I like planning fun activities and surprising my wife with going shopping or date night.

When my daughter is here, I invite her to come along if we’re doing something family stuff.

Her attitude varies a lot but I let it go because she’s getting therapy and treats her one year old brother well.

His daughter was upset at how much money her stepmom was spending.

However, yesterday we all went shopping and my wife is in the process of remodeling our son’s room.

My daughter kicked up an attitude when my wife wanted to go to the home section of Bloomingdale’s and pick out items. She also wanted to buy some new clothes.

When my wife was out of earshot my daughter asked why she needed to buy kid stuff from an upscale department store and the baby wouldn’t remember the clothes ever.

I had the same argument when I was younger but I learned that sometimes it doesn’t matter what I think works, and I’d rather just make my wife happy.

He tried to explain, but his daughter took it the wrong way.

So I told her to stop bringing up the age old argument about upscale goods. Then I told her that I thought the same way as her in the past but I’ve learned a lot about compromise over the years. I then mentioned that I feel happy for a chance to do it right this time, and I’m a better dad this time around. And this was a new beginning, a second chance.

She immediately teared up and said “ Congrats, guess you changed.”

She wouldn’t accept my explanation that included being a better dad to her too and ended up Ubering back to her apartment.

AITA? This statement was meant to say I’ve done wrong and am doing better but she’s acting like I mortally insulted her in some way. She now refuses to respond to any form of outreach by me.

I can understand why his daughter feels hurt. He meant to admit that he wasn’t a great dad before, but that’s not what he said.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

It’s obvious why his daughter’s upset.

Another person calls him insensitive.

Here’s the perspective of someone who was in a similar situation but the baby in the story.

Everyone agrees that he really messed up in multiple ways.

I’m surprised she spends as much time with him as she does.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a dad who is using the credit card companies own envelopes against them.