Man Can't Stop Taking Stupid Bets And Losing to Teen Stepdaughter on Vacation Leading to Custody Dispute

The story, posted to an anonymous forum, featured a petty string of competitions between the woman’s new husband and her teen girl while on vacation – leading to some curious questions from fellow Redditors.

However, it was the consequences for the daily competitions that gave more weight to the whole thing.

Read on to see how it all played out in the AITA (Am I The A--hole) subreddit.

"My husband, daughter (15), step kids (13, 16), and I just came back from a 2 week vacation," OP (a.k.a. the "original poster") began.

"My daughter is very smart and is very good at a lot of things. She’s also very competitive. My husband is also very competitive," she went on to explain.

"My daughter started off this vacation by telling my husband there was sudoku on the plane and explaining how to play. He didn’t know that she’s been playing sudoku for months. She made a bet with him that if she finishes the hardest level first, he’d buy her wifi for the flight and if he finished first she’d share a bed with his younger daughter on the trip (his younger daughter was complaining about sharing with his oldest because she kicks and sleeps in the middle of the bed. She beat him and pestered him until he bought the wifi."

OP went on to describe a series of silly challenge bets her daughter concocted ... all of which her new husband fell for and then subsequently lost.

"When we got there she’d challenge him to races on land and in the pool (she’s won medals at state track meets and has been swimming since she was 2). Every day she’d challenge him to something, win, and he’d have to buy her something from the resort or local shops."

"My husband was getting sick of losing and my stepdaughters were upset that their dad was buying her stuff and not them so I told my daughter she either couldn’t compete with her stepdad or she had to let him win."

Of course that went over well.

"She decided to tell her stepdad that she wasn’t allowed to compete with him anymore because he couldn’t handle losing. This made them start to argue so I told her that if she [kept] it up she’d be grounded to the resort for the rest of the trip (a little over a week at this point). She decided to test me so I stuck to my word and she was left at the resort while the rest of us went out every day."

"The vacation was much more enjoyable without her turning everything into a competition but she told her dad when she got back that we grounded her and he’s mad at me now for leaving her there and excluding her from the vacation because my husband couldn’t act like an adult."

"I told him my daughter was warned to stop but she decided to test me and now he’s forcing her to stick to the custody schedule (technically I have her every other weekend but he was letting her go back and forth whenever she wanted) and is threatening to go to court for child support and back pay," she concluded, before asking: "AITA for grounding her for ruining the vacation?"

The responses, as you can imagine, were mostly utterances of shock and eruptions of laughter.

"In addition to taking bets from a teenager, he was taking stupid bets," one Redditor noted. "She's the one who explained sudoku to him but 'didn't tell him she's been doing it'? How do you not know your step daughter does competitive track?"

While another wrote: "Uh, no, you tell your husband to be an adult and stop taking the bait. It's not your daughter's responsibility to manage a grown adult's immaturity."

"It's so funny that the OP told her daughter to let an adult man win. Sounds stupid and childish," one more Redditor chimed in.

While this commenter just popped in to express how hilarious they found the situation to be: "I cannot stop laughing at the scenario of an adult being challenged by a teenager and constantly losing but still accepting every bet. This is honestly the funniest thing I’ve read on the internet in weeks. It feels like it came straight from The Simpsons. D’oh! Anyway, YTA and your husband is a fool but thank you for the laughs."

The highest rated comment, reaching nearly 20k upvotes, noted: "YTA [you're the a--hole] and unfortunately, so is your husband because he can't stop accepting competitive bets from his 15-year old stepdaughter, then being upset when he consistently loses to her. You should have told him to simply tell her 'no thanks' whenever she offered to race him, or otherwise compete against him in any way. He should have then decided that would be the wisest and most mature way to handle the situation. Nothing wrong with asking your daughter to stop trying to get your husband to compete against her during the vacation, or at least asking that she stop asking for rewards if she wins. But she is the child in this situation - it should have been up to the two adults (you and your husband) to figure out a way to put a stop to the competitions. (See above, hubby could simply decline to compete. Problem solved. No one is told to 'let him win' which is utter and complete BS, and I'm sure you know that.)"

They went on to add: "Now your poor parenting choices may be coming home to roost in an unexpected and unwanted way. You might have to pay child support and back pay (were you ordered to pay CS but haven't been doing so? or not paying the full amount ordered? If so, that doesn't reflect well on you either.) I suggest that you (and your immature husband) might benefit from several parenting classes. I hope you really think about how you handled this situation and how you can and should do better in future."

What do you think?