Dumping my teenage daughter’s dinner in the trash after she was rude to me?
On a throwaway account for obvious reasons. I’m (44) a single dad to two kids “Audrey” (16) and “Emily” (12). We have a great relationship but Audrey can sometimes be rude and demeaning, saying cruel things casually when she’s displeased about something or in a bad mood.
Emily (her little sister) looks up to her, often mimicking her behavior which obviously worries me.
I cooked a nice Sunday dinner and Audrey came to the table in a bad mood for who knows what reason. She was being a downer whereas Emily and I were cheerful.
I asked her to improve her mood please instead of ruining the dinner, she turned to me and unleashed her anger.
To quote some of her elegant words: “can you stop lecturing for once, you’re annoying as F and seriously you’re the one who ruins everything”.
I stood up, took her plate, and dumped it in the trashcan. I told her since she can’t bother to show me any basic respect, she should start providing for herself from now on.
She said she’ll make cereal and I said no that’s my milk and she should get a job to get her own groceries. I don’t feel like i yelled at her, I felt I spoke calmly but when she realized I was being serious, she got upset and started crying and ran to her room.
We haven’t talked since. Obviously she’s mad at me but now my younger daughter is mad at me too, saying I acted like a huge jerk to her sister.
I of course don’t see it that way, I don’t tolerate being spoken to with such disrespect and it did hurt me a lot hearing Audrey say these things to me that were uncalled for.
Obviously not winning any “dad of the year” award but was I in the wrong