It can be hard to keep up with other people’s lives when things are moving so fast. The world seems like it’s on fire half the time and time can get away from us, right?

This guy knew his brother and brother-in-law were looking into adopting a baby, but assume the process would be long and that there would be a head’s up before their family grew by 1.

My brother and his husband recently adopted their son. It was kind of sudden, baby dropped at the fire station sort of situation.

I had known they were in the process of adopting, but as far as I knew they were kind of early on.

I don’t know anything about the process so I guess I thought a pregnant woman looked through stacks of applicants, picked some family, met with them, and they went to the hospital to get the baby when it was born.

Basically I thought there would be a lot of lead up to them becoming dads and I would have a heads up.

Which is why, when his brother called to tell him he had a new nephew, OP asked if they’d adopted a cat or a dog.

He was informed it was a human baby, and his brother seemed a bit unsure as far as how to respond.

So my bro had called me last week and said, “congrats you’re an uncle! You have a little nephew.”

And reflexively I just said, “oh nice, did you get a dog or a cat?”

My bro was silent for a bit and I was thinking that’s not a hard question? And he finally says, “a human baby, we adopted a baby boy…”

And I was like, “s**t sorry, that was fast.”

His mother seemed horrified at the story and OP is feeling like maybe he’s a big jerk. He’s not neurotypical, though, so is checking with Reddit to see whether or not a big apology might not be in order.

My mom was absolutely HORRIFIED at this story and I’ve been deemed the biggest family asshole this year over it. My brother doesn’t seem mad, his husband seems to be very annoyed with me.

No one understands why I would ask that, so I mean, idk, am I an AH here? I’m not neurotypical, so it’s hard for me to know if maybe they’re teasing me and not actually that mad.

However, if this situation needs a real sit down kind of apology for me being a major AH then I want to do that.

Reddit is here for him, as always!

Most commenters, like this one, were quick to forgive and think everyone knows OP is good at heart.

They think a little honesty goes a long way.

A few issued reminders that being wrong doesn’t mean being an a$$hole.

Everyone was applauding his willingness to ask the hard questions.

Honest mistakes do still happen.

This one was refreshingly sweet.

Remember that it never hurts to ask; if people love you, they’ll be willing to explain.