In-laws can be the worst, at least in some family situations. But sometimes there stands to question whose fault that actually is.
One guy wanted to see if how his in-laws treated him was all in his head, by trading places with his twin brother for Christmas this year, but then he took it one step too far.
Reddit user "u/twinbrother88" believed that he essentially disappeared when he attended his wife's family's parties. He claimed to have attempted to start conversations with them and to get to know them, all highly to no avail.
He wanted to prove to himself and to his wife that his feelings about this were not all in his imagination. He came up with the plan to insert his twin brother into the family Christmas party this year, to see if any of his in-laws cared enough about him to actually notice he was a different, if identical, person. His wife agreed.
In a sense, the Christmas Eve plan worked. His twin brother did not go and actively attempt to start a conversation, and he received no social engagement in return.
Even if a tad quirky, this may have been an okay plan to keep between a husband and wife, as a prank or for personal validation or something similar. But the guy took things one step too far when he invited his brother to come with them for their Christmas Day visit with the in-laws, where he revealed that he had traded places with his brother and no one had bothered to notice.
The Reddit user then posted his story to the "Am I the A$$hole" subReddit, asking if he was being a jerk for trading places with his brother, and then sharing the results with the entire family.
You can read the full story here:
from AmItheAsshole
There have been decidedly mixed reactions to who is a jerk in this story.
Clearly for some people, if they've struggled with their own family relationships, they are more inclined to identify with the guy when he said that he is essentially ignored at these parties.
"If you've ever personally known twins, you know they look nothing alike (to people who know them). If he was someone they "knew", they should have recognized it wasn't the same person."
- John Fartston
"You don't know why the MIL & FIL should be able to tell them apart? Most people know their children's spouses pretty well, certainly well enough to distinguish them from people who merely look like them. Even speech patterns are different as twins live apart as adults, so it's really not hard to pick the imposter unless you don't know the person well at all."
- Poldark_Lite
Others more or less pin the blame on him for not more actively engaging at these parties to make friends. They also pointed out that it's pretty unrealistic to expect a group of people to come to such a Freaky Friday conclusion all by themselves, in what is usually a pretty normal Christmas Eve party setting.
"Idk, even if I was close with my brother-in-law and he was acting really weird/unlike himself at a family event, I don't think it would ever occur to me that he was actually his own twin impersonating him. That's just weird as all fuck, who would do something like that"
- bubberduckyphd
Many also pointed out that revealing the plan to his wife's family, without first running it by his wife, was a risky move and could have serious repercussions for his wife's relationship.
"If this is real I'm going to go with ESH, you should have kept it between yourself and your wife to prove a point that you shouldnt have to go see her family. Yes what her family does sucks and makes them assholes but you really have no hope for that ever changing, people tend not to change shitty behaviors if called out. By doing what you did you've now made a bad situation worse."
- WanderingSnail
"But then you could have had such a better reveal if the wife was in on it. Husband comes home after dinner started. Walks in saying how he's sorry he's late, that work sucks, and sorry he missed the party last night. Only to see Steve. Cue dramatic soap opera acting."
- insane_contin
Though it makes sense why he wanted to conduct the experiment, it may have not been the most thought-through plan ever.
Hopefully, the family took it in stride or were able to have a good laugh about it.
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