Widowed dad sought advice on helping teen daughter get over a breakup and the internet delivered in a wholesome way
Heartbreaks are those moments when you need a shoulder to lean on to cry your heart out. It's better if one has someone around to understand those complex emotions after going through a breakup with a partner. One father was feeling lost and clueless when he found his 16-year-old daughter upset. The dad turned to the Reddit community and made a post narrating how his teenager got cheated on by her first boyfriend and he had no idea how to console her. Needless to say, the online community did not disappoint.
The widowed single father started by sharing he had three daughters. His oldest daughter had been dating a boy from her school since she was 15. The boy was a couple of years older than her and the dad knew him because he used to visit their house too. One day, the dad found his oldest girl in distress. She had discovered her boyfriend with another girl in a compromising situation. "She wanted to surprise him because he didn’t go to school that day because he was sick. He had told her that but he skipped to be with this other classmate," the dad wrote. "My baby is in a very bad place. I know this was bound to happen one day but I am not ready or equipped for this."
The dad confessed that he had no idea how to deal with his daughter's situation. He had two partners previously and one of them was his wife. The dad hadn't dated for the past 11 years and felt he wasn't the best person to give his daughter relationship advice in that fragile moment. "On Friday I did my best to comfort her which she allowed me to. She also requested that she have an STD test which I took her to have. Now, she has barely eaten, barely leaves her bedroom and doesn’t want to talk to anyone," he continued. At one point, he walked past his daughter's bedroom at 2 am on a school night and heard her crying.
As the helpful advice poured in to support the dad, he made an update to the post, thanking everyone who spared their knowledge on how to interact with a teen girl who recently went through a heartbreak. "She had initially rejected my presence when I heard her crying but then she wanted to talk. It was a long night and she is now asleep," the dad wrote, adding that he planned some fun activities and a holiday to distract her daughter for the time being. "She also requested to talk to her psychologist about this so we made an appointment. My girls are no strangers to this as they’ve been going to therapy since mummy died," the dad concluded, sharing how it was hard for him to see his daughter suffer.
People on Reddit left comments that possibly helped him keep the situation with his daughter under control. u/FutureFall657 commented, "Please remind her that this isn't about anything that she did or who she was. There is nothing someone can do to stop a cheater from cheating. It's easy for a young girl to fall into the trap of blaming herself. Remind her of her worth at every turn and bolster her sense of self." u/BBrea101 quipped, "One sound piece of advice my mom gave to me around this time was to learn what negative emotions are evoked from this relationship, normalize them and move them forward." u/noonecaresat805 added, "Maybe give her a day off school tomorrow? When you get home, bring pizza and ice cream and some of your and her favorite movies. And watch them with her and just let her cry it out."
