Dad Gets Slammed for Leaving Equal Inheritance to Stepson after Neglecting His Real Kids for Years

How could some fathers be so blind and insensitive after having been forgiven for neglecting their real kids and being granted the chance to fix broken relationships?

This 62-year-old dad posted his story on Reddit’s r/AmItheA–hole forum with the username u/Particular-Song-5748, saying he’s currently married to a woman who’s 23 years younger than he but with a 12-year-old son from a previous marriage. According to him, “My relationship with my stepson is quite good. He doesn’t call me dad but seems to view me as a very close uncle. I do my best to be a good father figure to him. If I’m being completely honest, I hope that eventually he will see me as a father figure, especially given that his father is never really around and constantly disappoints him.”

Photo: Pexels/Ron Lach

Now, regarding his real kids from his first marriage, who are now 34 (son) and 32 (daughter) years old, OP wrote, “I will admit I don’t have the greatest track record as a father. While my bio kids were growing up, we were kind of distant, as their mother and I were constantly fighting (she was a SAHM, while I was running a business to varying degrees of success). However, when they became adults, we (bio kids and I) became much closer. My business also grew a lot, and I am quite wealthy now, compared to struggling to pay bills when my bio kids were growing up.”

But a bitter conflict ensued weeks ago between OP and his real kids when he told them that he was planning to leave his stepson with the same percentage of inheritance that he would be giving to his own real kids.

“Well, my kids are furious with me now, telling me this was unfair, as they had to grow up with a cold, emotionally and physically distant/unavailable father who struggled to bring food to the table. They mention how my stepson gets to live a luxurious childhood with a much kinder and more present/emotionally available and supportive parent than they had ever had while not even being my real son,” OP further said on his post.

Photo: Pexels/RODNAE Productions

What’s more, his son and daughter think they deserve more since they did everything to fix the relationship with their dad and it’s also the two of them who have been helping their father in his business — making him and his current family wealthy now. Also, aside from leaving 50% to his current family, he’s granting his young wife and her son the right to get involved in the business that he would be entrusting to his two bio kids, with each one of them receiving 20%, just like his stepson.

Now, OP’s asking the AITA community if his plan to leave an equal inheritance to his real kids and stepson is the right thing to do. Is he wrong?

A loud, angry, and reverberating YTA is what he got from most of the community members. Many were enraged by his unjust treatment of his real kids and favoring his young wife and her son who is not even his own.

Photo: Pexels/Edmond Dantes

His kids have endured a lot, and they had been willing to forgive him. In fact, his real son and daughter supported him wholeheartedly so he could succeed in life. And that success has been benefiting his current family, allowing his wife and stepson to enjoy a life that his true children had not tasted.

OP said in his post that he could understand their point of view, but the reality is he cares more about his current family than his real kids. He does not understand how much love they have for him that both brother and sister reached out to him. They are also the reason why his business has prospered to a point that his pride and happiness were overflowing in his post.

But he failed to understand what would make his real kids happy. It’s not the amount of money or inheritance. It’s the amount of appreciation and whether he feels for them a bit more than a child that’s not his own.

Photo: Pexels/SHVETS Production

“YTA, without a. doubt. Why are you treating some random kid that youve known for 2 minutes the same as your actual real kids who you have apparently failed over and over again?I guess you can leave him a bit, but 1/3 is ridiculous,” commented one Redditor.

“It sounds like he still has a metric f-ton of guilt over how the first two grew up. He sees himself in stepson’s dad and how he treats the stepkid, so now op has let his own guilt over how his kids grew up swing him too far in the wrong direction to overcompensate for his own mistakes. Dude needs therapy and to rewrite his will again,” said another individual.

“The bio kids DO deserve something for the work they put in to make OP’s business successful! Whether that be shares in the company or ownership of the business or whatever, they should be fairly compensated for their father FINALLY becoming successful and wealthy. Especially when they spent their childhoods doing without. Sounds like OP never would have made it without them,” wrote another commenter.

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