Sometimes, we end up doing the wrong thing because we love someone so much that we can’t help but cover for them. If you spent years covering up your mom’s affair, only to have your dad confront you, would you have the courage to tell him the truth?
This girl was only 10 when she found out that her mom was cheating on her dad with some other man. She was sitting next to her mom one day when she got a phone call. She could clearly hear a man on the other end of the line say that he loved her mom.
“I immediately understood what was going on, and I started to cry. She told me to never tell my dad. 15 years later, my dad took me aside and showed me a message on his phone,” she explained.
“It was from my brother’s ex-wife saying, ‘Your wife was cheating on you during the years 2008-2009 with a coworker.’ She was trying to tear our family apart, but that’s another story.”
“My dad asked me what I thought about it. I looked at him, right in the eyes, and I said, ‘What? She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s completely crazy.’ He agreed with me, saying, ‘Yeah, I agree,’ and then he deleted the message.”
She knows that was her only chance to let her dad know the truth and to relieve her guilt. It would also make her mom face the consequences of her actions, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell her dad her mom was a cheater.
She didn’t want her dad to feel betrayed or hurt, and so she came to the conclusion that it was not her place to tell her dad what her mom had done.
Her dad passed away not too long ago, and she’s felt haunted by what happened back when he asked her if her mom had been seeing someone else.
“I’ve never told anyone about that conversation, and I hate my mother more and more every day, even though she’s trying to be a better person. I just can’t forgive her for indirectly forcing me to lie to my dad,” she concluded.
Kids should never be forced to carry around secrets for their parents or get suck in the middle of the messes they have made, so I feel sorry for her.
I think she tried to protect her dad and her family, the only way she knew how, by covering for her mom. Her mom should own all of this guilt, not her.
She should sit down and have a conversation with her mom about how she feels. It might just help her feel better.
What advice do you have for her?
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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
