A man felt the need to teach his stepdaughter a lesson after she humiliated a waiter in front of a busy restaurant.

To his surprise, his wife sided with her daughter, and it made him feel in the wrong. A man decided to share his story on Reddit, hoping people could help him determine whether he was wrong for what he did.

His blended family decided to splurge at a fancy restaurant as it was the first time in a while that they were going out together.

Things were going well until mid-dinner when one of the servers served one of the dishes. While serving the plate, the waiter accidentally tripped.

He lost his grip, and some of the food fell onto his stepdaughter Hailey’s clothes. It was safe to say that the spilled food ruined her dress.

Hailey’s Reaction toward the Waiter Was Disrespectful

The waiter immediately apologized, but Hailey was livid. She began spitting degrading words at the man, who clearly felt horrible about what happened.

“Why are you a [expletive] waiter if you can’t even watch where you are going? You are already paid low, so I’d have thought you’d be more careful!”

“She was shouting, and almost everyone was looking at us now,” the man wrote. He demanded that Hailey apologize for what she said, but she refused.

Hailey insisted that she had nothing to apologize for because it was the waiter who ruined her dress. The man repeatedly asked his stepdaughter to apologize, but she wouldn’t listen.

The Man Felt the Need to Punish His Stepdaughter

Feeling defeated, the man said that since he couldn’t force his stepdaughter to apologize, he’d instead refuse to pay for her meal. He asked Hailey to leave the restaurant, and she began to yell.

After Hailey left the restaurant, the man’s wife began scolding him. She felt he was being unfair to Hailey, implying that he was overreacting.

The man couldn’t believe that his wife was siding with her daughter. He took to Reddit to ask people’s opinions on whether what he did was wrong, and they did not disappoint.

“Your stepdaughter absolutely was out of line here, and you were justified in your punishment. She can’t behave herself? Then she’s not going to be there. It was absolutely disgraceful for her to punch down on someone who made an honest mistake,” one user wrote.

“If her mother’s reaction to her awful behavior was to get mad at OP for admonishing her, then something tells me the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” another shared.

Some servers read the story and shared how they would feel if they were in the man’s shoes. “I’ve been a server too and nobody deserves to be treated like crap for what was a genuine accident,” one former server admitted.

Other Reddit users suggested that Hailey took a job in customer service for her to learn her lesson. It would put her in the server’s shoes and help her understand how difficult it was to work in the service industry.

Ultimately, people sided with the dad and even applauded him for how he handled the situation. They felt his stepdaughter was inappropriate and that her mother enabled her attitude.

Sometimes, it’s difficult for stepparents to find out where they stand when it comes to their stepchildren. Sometimes, spouses might not appreciate the stepparent doing the disciplining, while others allow their spouses to raise their stepchildren as their own.

In this man’s case, he felt it was only appropriate to do something about his stepdaughter’s behavior. After all, they were a blended family, and she was his daughter as much as his other children were.

What do you think of the man’s situation? Was he wrong for what he did, or was his decision justifiable?