Having s stepparent replace someone’s real parent can be triggering, especially when the stepparents has bad things to say about the biological parent.

This teenage girl received a locket with her mom and stepdad’s photos in it, but she doesn’t have a good relationship with her stepdad.

She was honest with her mom about how she felt about the gift. Was that the wrong thing to do?

Read the story below for all the details.

AITA for rejecting a birthday gift from my mom?

I turned 16 two weeks ago, and my mom gave me a locket for my birthday.

When I opened it up, I saw she had put a photo of her and her husband.

It was not her and my dad.

This young woman’s parents divorced, and then her dad died.

My parents divorced when I was little.

My mom started dating her husband when I was 5, and he moved in with us when I was 6.

My dad died when I was 10.

She disliked her stepdad.

I was never close with my mom’s husband.

He never liked my dad and never tried to hide it, so I disliked him.

Then, he got drunk before my dad’s funeral, and he gloated to my grandparents that he was the only dad I’d have now and my dad would soon be forgotten.

Her mom tried to defend her stepdad’s drunken actions.

I wasn’t in the room when it happened, but he got so loud that I heard that part.

My mom tried to excuse his behavior as him being drunk. She said he was not thinking clearly.

But it intensified my dislike for him.

Her mom was hoping she’d give her stepdad a chance.

She’s always tried to make me give him another chance.

She told me I liked him at the start. She said I could love him if I tried. She told me he’d be a good dad.

She rejected her mom’s gift.

So, when I saw the locket, I was kinda triggered.

I rejected the gift and told her it was insensitive to give me that. She knew how I felt about her husband.

She told me she couldn’t put dad’s photo in it and it was unfair to expect her to.

Her mom was demanding an apology.

She said it was unfair to push her husband and reject him, as well.

She said rejecting a birthday gift isn’t right either. It’s hurtful, and I should apologize and accept it, she added.

I told her I didn’t want a gift like that, and I don’t appreciate it.

AITA?

The gift was insensitive.

Let’s see what others have to say about this on Reddit.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Her mom is forcing the relationship, says this person.

Here’s a genius idea.

Another user takes her side.

And lastly, this comment has a valid point.

Relationships flourish better without pressure.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.