We might not like to hear it, but sometimes we get dumb ideas from TV shows. It might be as silly as buying an item we can’t really afford because some rich celebrity was hawking it. And it might be as asinine as accusing your partner of hiding your child’s paternity all these years.
That’s the issue one Redditor wrote in about, explaining that his brother may have watched too much Paternity Court on YouTube and basically blew up his relationship.
“My brother may be one of the dumbest people alive. I watch a lot of reality TV shows and last month I was watching episodes on YouTube of a show called Divorce Court and Paternity Court. My brother came into the living room while I was watching the latter and we started watching together. We had a mini competition to see if we could guess if the guy in question is or isn’t the father,” the OP writes.
“He kept saying things like, ‘The baby looks just like him! Look at the ears, nose, that’s his kid’ and other things like that and when the results would come back that the guy isn’t the father he would be so shocked…I explained to him that you can’t just go off facial features to determine paternity but it is a good indicator.”
Well, the OP’s brother took the reality show a bit too seriously. A month later, the OP’s brother’s girlfriend called his mother crying, saying that the brother was having doubts that their five-year-old daughter was really his.
“I called my brother and asked him what was up. He said that he just wants 100% proof his daughter is his. I asked him where this was coming from and he said nowhere. I said that my niece looks just like him and our family and then he said that I’m a hypocrite because I had told him you can’t go off looks to determine DNA. Then I put two and two together and realized this was stemming from us watching that paternity show!”
Apparently, the brother made up some crazy reason (a call from her ex saying she was sleeping with him) in order to coerce his girlfriend into taking a paternity test. So the OP called her and told her the real reason—and his brother got mad. Now, the girlfriend refuses to take the test and is now taking him to court because she is breaking up with him. He told me I ruined his life because now this DNA test comes with a cost of monthly child support when before she was willing to take the test to prove to him she wasn’t cheating.
This guy sounds pretty special. But did the OP go too far?
“Your brother was a liar and is now getting what he deserves. It also sounds like he’s not the brightest light in the harbor,” said Moggetti.
“Your brother ruined his relationship, not you. Good for you for not allowing him to lie to her (and accuse her of cheating, since he falsely claimed he got a call from her ex!) You did the right thing. She deserves better,” said rose_glass.
“He basically told her, without any good reason, that she cheated on him and had another guy’s daughter. So yeah no wonder she’s dumping him. Thats on him not you. Your brother needs to smarten up,” said alongstrangesomethin.
“While your brother is a dodo for making life choices about paternity based on a very dumb TV show and shouldn’t have lied to his gf as to why he wanted a paternity test, it was none of your business to tell his gf that he lied to her. OP set off a whole terrible chain reaction that has now disrupted her brother’s relationship with gf and his own daughter. Yes, brother was dumb, and you were right to tell him so and urge him to undo the mess he’d made. It wasn’t up to OP to meddle,” explained farsical111.
“Also, if this was something that ended a 5 year relationship with a kid this was probably a last straw kind of thing. I can see someone in a decent relationship being like “wtf you’re stupid” (not like she doesn’t know the guy) but to just peace out? It likely wasn’t a good relationship, anyway….Obviously if this dude had such insecurities that he would even think something like this, it has likely interfered with their relationship before. It probably wasn’t a good relationship to begin with, this was just the last thing in a steady stream of bullshit where she finally left. Yes, it was an asshole move by him, which leads me to believe he was an asshole long before this happened,” stated CthuluForPres.
What would you have done if you were the OP?
More paternity drama:
- Wife Refuses To Take Paternity Test Until Husband Goes To Therapy
- Dad Wants To Cut Ties With His Mom After She Gave His Daughter A Secret Paternity Test
- Husband Asks Pregnant Wife To Take Care Of Baby Conceived During His Affair
- Wife Wants To Know If She Should Let Husband Attend Funeral Of A Baby Conceived In Affair