Teenagers are weird, and you couldn’t pay me enough to relive those years. So how would you feel if you found out that a bunch of teens were commenting on your hotness nonstop?
This 36-year-old man has a 14-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, and they got divorced eight years ago when his daughter was only six.
He and his ex have joint custody of his daughter and get 2 weeks each month with her. However, their arrangement changes based on his daughter’s activities for the week.
He doesn’t argue with his ex about that as much as they previously did, and they have come to terms with custody unexpectedly changing as his daughter grows up.
Anyway, he’s recently become pretty disturbed by his teen daughter constantly telling him about how her friends think he’s super hot.
The first thing that happened that made him wildly uneasy occurred a couple of months back. He had to attend a school event for his daughter because his ex couldn’t make it.
He was supposed to watch his daughter’s class this winter while they were on a skiing trip, and his daughter’s school mandates that every parent participate in things like this.
“After we came back, my daughter told me, while staying at my house, that a few girls from her class asked her if her parents were together and if I was single,” he explained.
“It made me uncomfortable (…it makes me uncomfortable just typing it out right now), but I just shrugged it off in the end.
After that, there have been instances of my daughter showing her pictures with me to her friends, and later on telling me they thought it was hot and had a divorced dad energy or whatever.”
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“It really got to me when my ex-wife called and told me she’s egging her friends on and saying some very inappropriate stuff about me when they visit. These girls have never visited my daughter in my house, and I don’t think I’ll allow it, honestly.”
His ex mentioned she overheard the girls saying things about him, and his daughter didn’t join in, but she giggled and let them continue.
He would hate to appear to be creepy by addressing it, considering his daughter is extremely sensitive. He’s worried that if he confronts his daughter’s friends, she will spin things and paint him as the bad guy.
He wants the girls to quit talking about him in such a gross way, but he’s confused over how he can safely do this and not get himself in trouble.
I do think this is a case of teenagers being weird teenagers and coming into themselves, so it’s easy to turn this into a teaching moment for his daughter.
He shouldn’t be so concerned about his daughter’s feelings here; he has to sit her down and literally say this is not acceptable, and she has to stop entertaining her friends as they talk about him.
He also has to get his ex on board with speaking to their daughter about her friends, because maybe if she hears this from both of her parents, she will understand the gravity of the situation.
His ex is enabling his daughter’s friends to be disrespectful anyway by calling him to report the comments, but not intervening and shutting it down, and that has to change.
And he should do whatever it takes to protect himself, so he should not allow his daughter to have her friends over at his house. They can keep on going over to his ex’s place instead.
What advice do you have for him?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
