Man Accuses His Wife Of 'Robbing Him' Of Having A 'True Jr.' After She Gives Birth To Their First Son
She thinks it might have something to do with his own father.
Anna Shvets / Pexels Having a child carry on your name can be a wonderful thing. Not all people agree with this idea, but many find it a way to connect themselves to their children more than just by blood. But with every marriage comes compromise—partners come into a relationship with different family traditions.
One woman experienced this with her husband when she wanted to have her maiden name in their future son’s name. She took to Reddit’s “r/AmItheA--hole” (AITA), a subreddit dedicated to people asking others if they acted appropriately in a situation.
He accused her of ‘robbing him’ of having a ‘true jr.’ after she gave birth to their first son.
The mom took to Reddit to use character names from the Nickelodeon show "SpongeBob Squarepants" for anonymity in her post and explained that her husband, SpongeBob himself, and she share two children.
She, Patrick Star, is pregnant and now the couple have their first son on the way. Until this point, they faced no friction when choosing names for their children. Both of the kids carry their father and mother's last name — in double-barrel format with their mom's maiden name first.
However, for their first son, he again chose the name, except this time, he wanted to name him after himself. “I…would like to continue the family tradition of my maiden name being used: SpongeBob Star Squarepants, Jr,” she wrote.
His disagreement surprised her since they had no qualms when naming their other children. She pointed out that it would be strange for their son to be the odd one out of his siblings, being the only one who doesn’t have his mother’s maiden name. Though, he felt she was robbing him of having a son who’s a “true Jr.”
“He is absolutely furious at this and is saying that I’m trying to rob him of his birth certificate matching his son’s. That if I add my family’s name, our son won’t be a true Jr.,” she wrote.
On the other hand, she doesn’t feel like it’s a big deal since his middle name would “likely get lost in official paperwork” anyway. But she wants her family tradition to continue to be passed on and feels like he’s getting in the way of that, hitting that there may be a bit of sexism involved.
“I understand a father and son having a special connection, but I feel like I shouldn’t be dismissed just cause I’m not the same sex of my child,” she wrote. On top of that, the husband’s family doesn’t even have a history of naming their sons “Jr.” So, who’s in the right?
People in the comments overwhelmingly side with the mother.
Many people bashed giving a child a “Jr.” name, expressing that the son may feel discontentment for being named after his father.
“Hardly any kid wants to be a junior anyway,” one person wrote. “It’s like alienating your son from your daughters. Not only does your husband show already now his clear favori[ti]sm but he’ll even make it stand out to everyone.”
Many others weighed in on the idea that the father is showing favoritism and sexism for wanting a connection to his son, who is seemingly closer than his daughters. She clarified in a comment that it, perhaps, has to do with his father tragically passing away when he was three years old. They both had another conversation about their future son’s name following her Reddit post but didn’t post the outcome of it.
Hopefully, they can at least come to a compromise! The subreddit gave her post the official badge “Not the A-hole.”
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. His writing covers entertainment, news and human interest stories.