A man turned to Reddit for advice after a Thanksgiving he hosted descended into chaos when, he said, his 8-year-old nephew repeatedly assaulted him throughout the day.
In his post, he explained that the boy has a long history of violent behavior toward family members. He claimed the child had previously “pulled a knife” on his mother, beaten her with a stick so badly she was hospitalized and unable to walk, and thrown objects at her that left her with black eyes.
According to the poster, the trouble started early in the celebration. His nephew was “jumping on furniture, swearing, and hitting me in the head repeatedly.” The man said he asked the boy multiple times to stop and respect the house rules, but the child ignored every warning.
As the day went on, he said, the behavior escalated while his sister — the boy’s mother — did not step in. The man wrote that the child soon turned on other relatives and “attacked my brother causing him to spill his drink on our carpet.” During the meal itself, the boy allegedly continued smacking him in the head for more than three hours.
The man said both he and his parents tried to intervene, but nothing changed. Eventually, he told his nephew that if he kept it up, he would not be invited back and would not receive Christmas presents. Even then, the boy allegedly continued to walk over and hit him in the head while he tried to eat.
Reaching his limit, the poster said he decided to physically move the child away to avoid a bigger confrontation. “I grabbed him by his shoulders, picked him up, and decided to bring him over by my sister,” he wrote. The boy, he claimed, laughed and said, “This is fun,” before head-butting him in the face.
At that point, the man’s sister saw what was happening and, misunderstanding the situation, shouted at him to stop because she thought he was choking her son. He said he immediately put the child down — and was punched in the face for his trouble. He then restrained the boy to prevent further hits.
When relatives told him to let go, he said he loosened his grip, which led to the boy punching him again.
The man wrote that his nephew continued to scream, swear and threaten him as his sister pulled him away. According to the post, the child said, “F— you uncle [name]” and warned that the next time he saw him, he would be “dead.” The gathering quickly broke up as his sister took her son home, leaving the rest of the family shaken and upset.
Physically, the poster said he was left with a painful headache, facial bruising and a damaged nose that over-the-counter painkillers hadn’t relieved. Emotionally, he felt devastated. He wrote that he had spent hundreds of dollars, taken a week off work and planned the holiday for months to make it special. One of his brothers stayed afterward because he “felt so bad knowing all the work I put in and having it ruined.”
The man also said his mother blamed him for “escalating” the situation, arguing that he should have handled it differently. He, however, believed that years of minimal consequences for his nephew’s behavior had only reinforced it.
He described feeling especially hurt after his mother and sister insisted he should have “just let him keep hitting me to keep the peace.” After talking it over, he and his wife decided they could no longer safely be around the child. “My wife talked to me and said my nephew is a liability and sooner or later would seriously hurt me or her,” he wrote.
He added that this was the third time his nephew had physically attacked him at a family event and needed to be restrained. Other siblings, he said, agreed and told him they also would not attend future gatherings where the boy was present. One brother, in particular, did not want his daughter exposed to that level of violence.
Despite his heartbreak, the man felt he had reached a point where he had no other choice. “I refuse to continue to be attacked and abused with my nephew receiving no repercussions,” he wrote, emphasizing that he loves his mother and sister and hates the idea of family events falling apart. “I didn’t want to break their hearts as they love having us all together,” he added.
In a follow-up reply to a commenter who suggested he should have distanced himself long ago, the poster said he had genuinely hoped things were improving. He explained that his nephew had been in counseling and, with his most recent therapists, had appeared to be doing better. He admitted he was worried about Thanksgiving but wanted to believe it could be a peaceful holiday.
Now, he said, he feels stunned by how things unfolded. “I still can’t believe I’m writing this, as this just feels insane to me,” he concluded.
