“Speak French or leave”: Father threatens to kick out his American-born daughter for not speaking to him in French all the time

One dad turned to Reddit’s infamous AITA thread to share his story. He explained that he is French-American, but when his daughter refused to speak to him in French, he said he wanted her out of the house.

The father of four shared that his “grandparents escaped France at the start of WWII.” He claims he is very proud of his ancestry, adding that his oldest daughter brought her boyfriend to stay with them.

The family speaks French in the house, but “ever since she brought her boyfriend home, my oldest daughter will not speak French.”

He asked her why she refused to speak French, and the daughter said, “she says she doesn’t want to alienate her boyfriend.”

This was when things escalated, and the dad wanted to hear from the Reddit community. He wrote, “I told her that she could speak French or leave. Now my daughter won’t talk to me in any language, and my other children think I was too harsh.”

Comments were almost exclusively on the daughter’s side, with one Reddit user writing, “I’m thrilled your child chooses to be polite in front of the company, especially someone she cares for. “

The same person added, “While being bilingual is amazing, being the person who doesn’t understand the conversation is frustrating as hell.”

Another explained, “It’s okay to be proud of your heritage, but you’re not living in France anymore, and you’re excluding your daughter’s boyfriend, which is a sign of great disrespect for her, the boyfriend, and the country you’re living in.”

A bilingual person stated, “I speak English and French (I’m Canadian), but in French or English-speaking situations where there’s a third party who isn’t bilingual, I’ll speak whatever language is most widely understood.”

Some were quite disappointed with the dad: “What a terrible ultimatum. You are being unreasonable. Also, there is a great irony about you writing this in English. I hope you see that.”

Another echoed this statement, “If you want to live in a place where people only speak French, go to France.”

The third gave their two cents, “The sweet irony in all of this is that the OP is two generations removed from his French ancestry. “

Someone joked, “OP’s post might be the most French thing I read in my life.”

Reddit posters all said that the answer to Am I The A….hole was a big, fat yes.

Many even went as far as calling the father a bully, as this person said, “He is disrespecting the memory of the grandparents too. They stood up to and fled bullies, and you OP became one.”

The most upvoted comment with nearly 30k likes was straightforward: “In what possible universe are you not the a….hole here?”

Do you agree with the dad or with the Reddit posters? Were you in a similar situation where everyone spoke a language you did not understand?

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