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When parents get divorced, it affects not just them, but the entire family.

What would you do if your parents got divorced several years ago, but recently, they were spending a lot of time together, and you suspected that they were trying to get back together?

That is what the young man in this story experienced, and he saw that his younger siblings were getting their hopes up for it, so he confronted his parents to see what was happening. Dad said that he should stay out of their relationship and that it is none of his business, so he wonders if he should have just ignored the situation.

Personally, I think he did the right thing by asking them about it, and his Dad’s reaction was completely out of line. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.

AITA for saying that my parents needed to be transparent about their relationship with eachother?

So, my (16M) parents split when I was 10. It wasn’t messy or anything, but it was kinda a massive shock to literally everyone because my parents were always so close.

Divorce can be very difficult on the whole family.

AFAIK, there was no cheating and they both said they just grew apart.

I have three other siblings (16F, 10F and 8M) and the two younger ones don’t really have any memories of our parents as a couple. They are still good friends.

Maybe they are trying to reconcile.

Recently, (past six months or so) my parents have been suspiciously close. We switch between our parents every two weeks and, for example, during my dads weeks, my mother might be over at his place like 2-3 times a week and they’ll be acting like a couple and vice versa.

I’ve also been finding my dads jackets at my moms place a lot and she’ll insist that either I must have borrowed it from him or that they aren’t his.

Yeah, they are definitely trying to get back together.

Obviously, I have no problem with them reconciling but it’s confusing my younger brother who is autistic. He’s a very sensitive kid.

Two nights ago we did movie night (it’s my mom’s week right now), my dad came over and brought take out.

I’m sure this is confusing, especially for the little ones.

My parents were cuddling with eachother on the couch and acting like how they were when my sister and I were kids (really lovey dovey).

When we all went off to bed, my younger brother came into my room and asked me if they were getting back together.

Their relationship has a direct impact on their kids.

I told him I didn’t know and he said he really hoped they were and he wanted to see ‘mommy and daddy living together’ like other kids have.

My younger brother is usually very strict with his routine so the fact that he stayed up and came to my room showed me that this was really confusing him.

The son is making a really good point.

The next morning, I told my mother what my younger brother said and I said that if they were getting back together it was great but they needed to be transparent with the younger kids because they’ve never seen them together before.

Additionally, I said that they should be careful because what if it doesn’t work out and the kids got their hopes up for no reason.

Good, hopefully everything works out now.

My mother apologized and told me that she had just gotten so caught up in her happiness at being back with my dad that she never considered how it would be affecting the younger ones.

She spoke to the both of them privately and whatever she said put my brother at ease because later that day he told me he wasn’t worried anymore.

If he didn’t want the kids to be aware, he shouldn’t have been so obvious.

My dad however, was annoyed because he called me later that day and said that I shouldn’t have gotten involved now.

This is because my mother told him they needed to be a bit more careful and she said that she wouldn’t be going over to his place when we were with him and she didn’t want him coming over during her weeks.

Dad really handled this poorly.

He said that it wasn’t my business to get involved in adults relationships and I’m starting to feel bad because I could’ve messed with their reconciliation.

AITA?

Nope. If Dad didn’t want the kids to be involved in his relationship, he should have kept it private. What they were doing just caused confusion, and they deserve an explination.

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Check out what the top commenters on this story had to say about it.

This commenter says that he was doing the right thing.

He was being a really good older brother.

The parents should have thought this through.

He was just trying to protect his siblings.

Dad was way out of line with how he handled this.

If they wanted to keep their relationship private, they shouldn’t have done it in front of the kids. It is understandable that the parents were just caught up in the excitement, but they have to know that their actions have a direct impact on their children.

Now Dad is being unreasonable by blaming his son for asking about it. Hopefully, this won’t make it more difficult for Mom and Dad to get back together, though.

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Author

Michael Levanduski