Man Says His Stepson Got Interested in Hunting — Then His Wife’s Ex Blew Up Over It

A man in r/Hunting said the whole thing started because he took his 8-year-old stepson scouting for deer. He explained in the post that he and his wife shared custody with her ex, doing a week-on, week-off split, and said he was an avid hunter who talked about hunting a lot around the house and with friends. According to him, the boy had started showing real interest in it, and he had already told him that if he ever hunted, it would only happen after talking with his mom and taking hunter safety. (reddit.com)

Then the boy went back to his dad’s house and talked about the scouting trip. The poster said his stepson also repeated one of his views on hunting, that if you harvest an animal, you ought to eat it. That was apparently enough to set the father off. In the thread, the man said his wife’s ex was “freaking out,” saying he never wanted his son to hunt and that hunting should not even be discussed in front of him. He added that the ex and his wife were strongly against guns too. (reddit.com)

What came through in the post was that the guy was trying not to overstep. He said his wife was okay with the boy going hunting as long as it was done as safely as possible, and he made a point of saying he had not promised anything without the mother’s involvement. He also said he kept his guns locked in a safe with the ammunition locked up as well. He did not sound like somebody trying to stir up a fight. He sounded like a stepdad who introduced a kid to something he cared about, saw the kid light up over it, and then got hit with backlash from the other side. (reddit.com)

The comments turned into a mix of support and warning. One person told him that if the boy wanted to go and his wife was fine with it, he should take him hunting. Another pushed back and said that as much as he agreed with the stepdad, it was still another man’s son and that the father’s wishes could not just be ignored. The original poster jumped back in at one point and said he had done nothing more than try to respect the father-son relationship, which made the whole situation harder on him. (reddit.com)

One of the more awkward parts of the thread was how hard the stepdad seemed to be trying to keep things civil even after the blowup. In one reply, he said he had actually been thinking before the drama started that he might offer the ex some deer meat if he filled his tags, and joked about who does not like backstrap. That reply made it sound like he had at least wanted the door open to keeping things friendly before the whole thing went sideways. After the fight, though, he admitted he was not sure about that anymore. (reddit.com)

Other commenters tried to talk him through it from different angles. One suggested inviting the father along scouting or to the range so he could see firsthand how seriously safety was handled. Another told the stepdad to stay cool, support his wife, and not let the ex bait him into a bigger mess. There were also comments from people in similar family situations saying that unless there were real safety concerns, what happened during the mother’s parenting time was up to her, not the ex. (reddit.com)

The guy who posted never made it sound like this was only about deer season. It read more like one of those family fights where hunting and guns were the spark, but there was probably a whole lot more sitting underneath it. The kid showed interest in something the stepdad cared about, the father hated the idea, and suddenly a scouting trip turned into a blowup over who gets to shape the boy’s world. That is really where the story lived the whole way through the thread. (reddit.com)