‘My wife is furious that I didn’t include her son in our family photo on holiday’

A man has turned to the internet for some advice after upsetting his wife by taking a family photo on holiday and excluding his stepson from the shot as he only wanted his kids

When it comes to co-parenting and blended families, navigating dynamics with children can be particularly tricky, as one man has recently found out when he took a photo of his kids on holiday.

The unnamed man claims to have majorly upset his wife when he took a picture of his little ones during their first holiday as a family – however, he didn’t include his stepson in the shot.

The man says he was taking the photo to send to his ex, the mother of his children, and that’s why his wife’s son wasn’t in it, but this has done little to appease the situation.

Not sure how to proceed, the man turned to Reddit for some much-needed advice, asking fellow users if he was an a**hole for taking the photo.

He wrote: “We got married during covid and last week we took our first family vacation will all the kids (we both share custody with our exes). I have two boys from my first marriage (7 and 6yro), and my wife has one boy from hers (7yro). The boys get along great. We have a baby together (1yro girl).

“At our vacation, we took dozens of pics of the kids, obviously. Then I told my sons to pose for their mom [sic]. My wife got mad and said I shouldn’t exclude my stepson. I told her I’ll take a picture of all the kids as well, I just have to take one of my sons for my ex.

“I took the picture, sent it to my ex, then we took a bunch more pics of all the kids, as we have for days before. When the kids were asleep later, my wife confronted me about the picture I took of my sons, and I told her I don’t think it was a big deal. I’ve taken a bunch of pics of all the kids, of just our girl, of just the boys, of the kids individually etc.”

He goes on to say how his wife feels like her son is being “excluded” and that the boy has enough issues with his own father and he “shouldn’t have to beg for his stepdad’s love as well”.

The man added: “I told her I think she’s really overreacting, it was just one picture and none of the kids even gave it a second thought. We ended up having a fight.”

Hundreds of people have since responded to the post, with many agreeing the dad hadn’t done anything wrong.

One said: “She is overreacting. This is not about her son/your stepson. This is because you were doing something for your ex. This is jealousy.”

Another replied: “Yeah I feel like the picture is just a symptom, but not the cause, of her reaction.”

A third posted: “Wait…so you’re telling me people can actually have a good co-parenting relationship?! It’s an actual thing?”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.