Man heightens wife's white lies to point out how ridiculous they are, she gets mad.
A little white lie can be ultimately harmless, but it's still better to keep things honest. Even the dumbest lie can catch up to you, and cause those around you to find you untrustworthy. There are people who lie so reflexively that they're hardly aware that they do it. Sometimes, it takes a call-out from a loved one to kick the habit.
In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he's wrong for heightening his wife's lies to point out just how ridiculous they are. He wrote:
"AITA for adding on to my wife's lies to make them so stupid she will stop?"
I love my wife very much, however, she has one massive problem. She loves to top people and has no problem lying to do it. And they are ridiculous lies. Her sister was over with our nephews and I mentioned that the kids were getting so tall. My wife immediately pops in to say that it is because her grandfather was 6'7" and that our son is already 6'4."
I'm 6'1" the kid is a little taller than me. Maybe 1/4". So I pipe up and say that he is actually 6'10. A friend of ours just had emergency surgery for her son because of testicular torsion. One of his balls was twisted up. My wife talks about how we went through the same thing. No, our son has an undescended testical and had routine surgery to bring it down.
So I added that our son was actually born with three testicles and it was the extra one that was twisted. Our daughter did very well in her final year of high school but she was not I repeat not valedictorian. But my wife tells people that she was. So I add that she did so well that the school actually made her valedictorian and salutorian.
My wife has finally figured out that if she tells these dumb lies around me I will make up even stupider lies. If I'm going to look dumb for not saying anything when she lies I may as well make the lies as stupid as possible. She has stopped around me but she still does it. She called me an AH for adding on to her harmless white lies.
People weighed in with their thoughts.
anonymous_for_this wrote:
"She called me an AH for adding on to her harmless white lies."
But they aren't harmless white lies, are they? They are lies intended to outdo whoever is telling their own story. She seems to want to be the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral. NTA.
Apprehensive_Pie_786 wrote:
🤣🤣🤣 NTA sounds like something from a sitcom and your wife is the character no one can stand.
NeighborhoodShort607 wrote:
I think that’s hilarious actually- NTA. It’s a sure sign of insecurity to be compelled to want to best people so much that you have to lie about it. She should talk to somebody about that. Absurd.
ThisIsTheCaptain wrote:
NTA! This is some funny @$$ shit. Why not? A lie is a lie is a lie. People have surely caught onto this by now. I would say, in this particular case, a little public ridicule might be warranted if she is going so above and beyond as to lie about one kid's balls and the other kid being a valedictorian.
Don't care much about the height thing...my mom is 5'2" and calls everyone 7 feet tall, so I'm willing to chalk that up to just silly exaggeration.
tatersprout wrote:
NTA. I want to be your friend. Your wife's lies are not harmless. They are pathological. Have you ever asked her why she feels the need to lie all the time? I wonder if she knows that there are probably zero people in her orbit that trust her anymore.
My sister is a pathological liar. She will lie even when the truth is perfectly harmless and acceptable. I don't understand, but I stopped believing anything she says a long time ago. She lost all of her friends because of her lying. Nobody wants to be around that nonsense.
OP is definitely NTA, but he is a creative story teller when it comes time to spruce up a lie.