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It is great when you have close friends who are almost like family, but things aren’t always as good as they seem.

What would you do if you were always told that you were ‘like family’ to your friends, but then at one of their weddings, you were not allowed to sit at the family table?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he left the wedding and stole some of the gifts. He thinks he was justified, though.

Read through the full story below and see what you think of what he did.

Treat me as though “He’s Like a son to me”

This happened to me more than 25 years ago, but it was a life changing experience. Made me learn one thing quite well.

It sounds like he was betrayed at some point.

When someone says to you “He/she is like a son/daughter/brother/sister/dad/mom”, that means you are NOT an actual “son/daughter/brother/sister/dad/mom” to them.

Please heed this advice carefully to avoid future pain! 🙂

Great friends are invaluable, but they aren’t always what they seem.

So, there was this family I was close to when I moved towns because their kids were in my college.

The boy was my age and grade, their daughter 2 years older. The 3 of us hung out a fair bit, as 2somes and 3somes and with friend groups as well.

It feels good to be loved.

I used to help the family out with small chores, things around the house, fixing things etc. No big deal of course.

The parents always said “He is LIKE a SON to us”. I thought wow, I have an adopted family because my parents were very far away and felt happy.

They had him help setup, but he couldn’t attend the party. Rude.

Looking back now, I was always “invited” to help for their gatherings etc but not invited to most of them, like barely any, unless it was ONLY a kids’ party and the kids invited me.

Now let’s be clear, the other parties/gatherings their kids and their friends’ kids WERE in those gatherings/parties, just I was not (even though I would help setup etc).

Anyways hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Once again, they are making him work.

Now the real kicker. Fast forward to a few years later. All of us had jobs, but were living close enough to the parents.

The older sister was engaged and going to be married. I was charged with all KINDS of work and important setup tasks, almost like a wedding planner.

This family sure doesn’t mind using him.

They had a wedding planner, but she was conveniently using me as the worker bee buttering me up saying “I knew the family well enough etc.”

The parent also took full advantage buttering me up etc “You’re like a second son to us blah blah”.

I bet this stung a bit.

I got the daughter the top 3 most expensive and thoughtful gifts and was primed and ready for the big day.

Come day of the wedding, they had a large table for the “family” and this had first and second cousins etc on it.

I was not part of the table setup as that was handled by the mom/dad of the bride to be.

There isn’t always enough room for everyone.

When I was doing a final walk-through I realized that I wasn’t on the “family table”.

So, before the ceremony I reached out like “hey, I am not on the family table, sure would have liked to be”.

I was told with a cheeky smile by the mom and dad. “Son that’s for close family only”.

What? He stole from the bride and groom?

Now where was I seated? Far away from the action. Not gonna lie, this upset me to no extent.

Petty Revenge? I finished my meal. While the gift area was left unattended, walked out with mine AND another 2 (which I knew were top 1 and 2 and more expensive than mine).

What a horrible thing to do.

I am like this is fair payment of my hard work. Without announcing, simply left the party.

Thankfully back then no CCTV cameras ;-). Yes I know it was “stealing” but I was hurt and really let down.

Can’t blame him for not helping out anymore.

They called me later, “oh you left without telling us, we needed some help blah blah”. I simply said “Yeah I am sorry, I had a friend’s event to attend later. But hey, the function went off fantastically!”.

Sure, they sounded upset. They tried contacting me over time for more “work” out of me, but I always politely declined saying “Sorry I m busy that day”.

They must have known he was upset.

No explanations offered despite asking. They had the audacity to point out “Your social life sure has taken off”.

I retorted by saying “Yes sometimes when you let go certain relationships, you get to experience new ones”.

Now was I always busy and social. Of course not. But hey playing video games and watching TV sure beats helping someone trying to mooch off you!

Yeah, I bet they missed having him around.

Fast forward to 4 more years after the wedding. The girl got divorced and asked to meet for coffee.

During coffee she was like, ‘hey, we really lost touch!’ I was like yeah we sure did.

She said her parents and her/brother sure missed “having me around”.

To be fair, kids do often have to help out.

I joked back saying “sure you miss your handyman lol”. She said oh come on you meant way more to us than that.

I said sure, handyman, serviceman you name it! She said no no come on you were like a brother to me and a son to them.

Well, this got awkward fast, but he felt justified.

I looked her dead in the eye and said “No dear I am not your brother. If you propositioned me today to have *** with you I would say sure! Your brother would not”

She was red-faced and didn’t know what to say and was stuttering.

This guy is a real piece of work.

I said true family treats you like family when it really matters and you guys did not. Put down 20 dollars for coffee and got up and said “have a great rest of your day”.

Never heard from that family or anyone in it again. Goodbye and good riddance!

Sure, the family maybe took advantage of him, but this guy is really weird and they are better off without him.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it, though.

Stealing is never ok, but he did it anyway.

This guy really made things awkward, though.

Stealing the gifts was way out of line, though.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who refuses to give up her own holiday traditions to spend the day with her family at her brother’s cabin.

He had a great opportunity, but he missed it.

The family was awful.

They might have mistreated him, but it seems that he deserved it based on how he acted. What kind of person steals wedding gifts?

His response to their poor treatment makes him the bad guy.