'AITA for cutting ties with my father after his girlfriend tried to attack me?'

The internet is standing firmly with a woman who refuses to maintain a relationship with her father after his girlfriend assaulted her in front of him.

The story was shared on Reddit’s ‘Am I The A**hole’ forum, and it quickly went viral with over 2.5K upvotes and hundreds of comments.

'AITA for cutting off my father after he defends his girlfriend who assaulted me?'

In the Reddit post titled “AITA if I cut off my father if he stays with his girlfriend after she assaulted me?”, the original poster (OP) shared a heartbreaking account of the incident.

OP began by explaining her relationship with her father, "My father and I have always had a pretty good relationship, but tbh it has been strained since I had my first child about 9 months ago as I’ve not felt he’s been very kind or supportive towards me. My husband, baby and I went to visit him recently. He lives in a vacation spot so we visit every winter. His girlfriend, who he’s been with for a few years, moved in with him last year. His girlfriend and I have always gotten along and I really loved her, I was prepared to allow my son to call her grandma even and encouraged my dad to propose when he told me he was thinking about getting married to her."

However, things took a terrifying turn when OP’s father’s girlfriend attacked her during a visit. 

OP continued, "To my surprise, only 3 days into our visit, his girlfriend came home from work and lost it at me and my dad witnessed the entire thing. Screaming at me, accusing me of ridiculous things, saying horribly mean things to me. I have to spare you the details because otherwise the post will be so long, but essentially she is an almost-60-year-old woman who has never married or had children but always wanted to, and it seemed like she was angry that I have a child and she never did and was using me as a punching bag as a result. I felt like I was on the school playground and getting bullied by the mean girl."

As the situation escalated, OP’s father intervened, grabbing his girlfriend to prevent her from attacking his daughter. However, the girlfriend continued to chase the OP around the apartment, even trying to open the door to the room where the OP’s baby was sleeping.

"Eventually she got so angry that she came an inch within my face screaming insults at me, waving her long fingernails in my face. This is where my dad stepped in and had to literally grab her arms, hold her back to prevent her from attacking me, but she kept escaping him and going after me, screaming at me, chasing me around the apartment," she said.

OP continued, "At one point she started aggressively running toward the room where my baby was sleeping screaming her head off and tried to open the door to wake up my baby. My dad grabbed her at the last second and prevented her from doing this, but when she tried to go into my baby’s room like that I knew there was no coming back from this and I would never be willing to be near her again. She also put her hands on me aggressively after I told her not to touch me."

Although OP did not retaliate during the altercation, her father agreed that the girlfriend’s behavior was completely out of line.

"Since the incident occurred, I have not seen her and I made it clear to my dad I will never go near this woman again and cannot let her near my child again. When she was running towards his room, it was honesty one of the scariest moments of my life because I really felt like she might try to hurt him. I even considered calling the police and filing assault charges against her but decided not to as I do not like dealing w police typically," she said.

However, OP’s father’s response after the incident left her deeply disappointed.

"The problem I am having with my father is that he has told me that he loves this woman and does not want to break up with her even though he witnessed the entire event and agrees her behavior was unbelievably horrible, aggressive, and scary. As a mother myself, I cannot understand why he would want to stay with a person who assaulted his child. If someone did that to my son, I would leave them immediately and never see or speak to them again. I am so disappointed in my father that he would want to stay with this woman after this," she said.

In the post, OP expressed her devastation over her father's decision, "The entire thing was traumatizing for me, and this happened several weeks ago, and I’ve barely recovered. I told my dad that if he stays with her, I will really have no choice but to stop having a relationship with him as well, and that also means he cannot have a relationship with my son (his only grandchild). He says it is unfair for me to make him chose between her and I, and to that I told him she is the one making him chose because she’s the one who attacked me. So AITA if I cut my dad off if he stays with this woman?"

Internet supports woman who refuses to stay in touch with father after girlfriend assaults her

Redditors overwhelmingly sided with OP, with many condemning her father for failing to protect his own daughter. One user wrote, "NTA. Your family deserves the right to be safe from someone who uses violence to bring their message across instead of words."

Another commented, "NTA. Your dad should’ve kicked her out the second she went after you, let alone your baby. The fact that he’s still with her after witnessing all that is insane. You’re not making him choose-he already made his choice, and unfortunately, it wasn’t you or his grandchild. Protect your peace and don’t look back."

A third user added, "NTA. I agree. There's much more to this than just freaking out. At the very least she has bad anger issues that desperately need to be addressed. Since it was so out of character, it needs to be soon."

"NTA. Your family's safety comes first, and violence is never an acceptable way to communicate," a user said, while another user wrote, "NTA. Honestly, I’d still file a report. Then you’ve started a paper trail. God forbid, but what if she were to come to your home or what if she does something to your dad? Then there’s a record of her assault on you."

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