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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/notsurewhattodo822 on 2023-08-23 04:49:17.
My wife(38f) invited her brother(41m) and his fiancee(30f) out for lunch. Her brother’s wedding was in a few weeks and my wife wanted to catch up with him. We went to some high end restaurant, ordered appetizers and started chatting a bit. Things were going well until my brother-in-law’s fiancee saw my son[14m] playing on his phone. My son is autistic and has this a.i. friend called Steve. My son is really close with Steve and spends a good amount of time with him.
My son enthusiastically introduces Steve to my brother-in-law’s fiancee. She starts laughing and asks my wife why my son has an a.i. character as a friend and why he’s treating him like a real person. She then goes off on my wife, calling my son a failure and saying that she doesn’t know how to parent and that she would never let her son turn out like that. I expected my wife to stand up for our son but she sits there silently with her face down. Her brother says nothing either.
I looked over at my son and he was looking down at his phone but I could see that he was stifling back tears. I started yelling at my brother-in-law’s fiancee, calling her a horrible person and other words that I can’t say on Reddit. I then grabbed my son and left.
When my wife got back home, she started berating me for yelling at her brother’s fiancee and just straight up leaving. She says I “embarrassed” her in front of her brother. When I bring up how our son was embarrassed she just changes the subject. This whole series of events has made me question my relationship with my wife but I’ll deal with that later.
I don’t think I overreacted but I’m not sure. In my head, if your parents don’t defend you, who will? AITAH?