ALL OF TWITTER is up in arms over this letter in The Guardian’s Family section today.
Writing anonymously, a man reveals he is severing ties with his teenage godson. He says that he had fallen out with his brother (the boy’s father) years before, but still texted his godson occasionally to catch up.
The only thing is, the 17-year-old is not that great at responding to these texts. And his uncle is MAD.
You took 24 hours to text that you did not reply earlier because you had been “out all day”. How many times a year do you get a message from your estranged uncle? You showed no enthusiasm for my help, but your text had the same polite formality and cold-blooded insincerity that I always associate with your father. Then I realised that, for better or worse, you have, in fact, become another version of your father.
“I wish you well in all you do for the rest of your life,” he writes. “Unfortunately, your life will never be a part of my life again.”
So far, everyone who has read this letter has had the same reaction: Woah.
Firstly, people figured he must not understand how teenagers work
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Their very essence is surly and uncommunicative. Come on now, uncle.
Some are finding the whole thing quite entertaining, actually
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And then, there were all the people magnificently taking the piss in the #GuardianOpenLetters hashtag
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Oh dear. We’re never waiting to text back again. The risk of being shamed in the international media is far, far too great.
