I (19F) was at a family dinner a few nights ago with my dad, my younger sister, my older sister who was visiting from out of town, and one of my dad’s longtime friends along with his wife and teenage son.
The night started completely normal, but eventually the conversation turned into one of those “men vs women” discussions that middle-aged dads seem to love. My dad started joking with his friend about how “lucky” he was to have a son because apparently living with women is so exhausting.
For context, both me and my older sister barely even live at home anymore. I’m away most of the time for college and she moved out for work. But somehow my dad still talks like he’s trapped in a house ruled by emotional chaos.
He started going on about periods and how women become impossible to deal with during that time of the month. Stuff like how the entire atmosphere in the house changes, everyone gets “moody,” “irrational,” and “miserable,” and how men apparently have to “survive” it every month.
He was laughing while saying it, but honestly this is the kind of thing he says pretty regularly, so it wasn’t exactly shocking.
Then his friend joined in and said, “Man, I thank the Lord every day I don’t live in a house full of women.”
At that point I got annoyed because everyone was sitting there acting like women having periods is some natural disaster men deserve medals for enduring.
So I replied in the same joking tone and said, “Honestly, if you had a son exactly like you, that’d probably be worse. You’re irritated and moody all the time already. It’s like you’re on a perpetual period.”
The table went SILENT for about half a second before his friend burst out laughing. His wife laughed too, and then she immediately pointed at her own husband and said, “Oh don’t laugh too hard, you’re exactly like that too.”
Even my older sister started smirking because honestly… it wasn’t wrong.
And since everyone was suddenly pretending periods are the ultimate source of household tension, I pointed out that I literally play sports on mine, my sisters are both pretty laid-back people, and most of the arguments at home usually started because of HIM. Half the time he’d pick a fight, someone would react, and then he’d blame “women hormones” instead of admitting he was being difficult.
The mood got awkward after that and dinner kind of fizzled out.
Later that night, my dad pulled me aside and told me I embarrassed and insulted him in front of his friend. He said it was disrespectful and “disgusting” to compare a man to having a period. Then he added that his friend group takes pride in being masculine/manly and I made him look weak in front of everyone.
But I genuinely thought we were all joking around equally. He was making jokes about women being unbearable because of periods, his friend was agreeing, everyone was laughing… but the second I made a joke back suddenly it crossed a line.
Now he’s acting offended and cold toward me, and my younger sister thinks I should’ve just stayed quiet to “keep the peace.”
AITA?