Every family has its own traditions - but some are more questionable than others. However, one dad sparked outrage after proudly presenting his daughter with a teddy bear stuffed with human hair.
He explained how it's tradition in his family to welcome their children into the world with a "special gift" - and how the hair symbolises a "new parental connection". But his gift didn't go down well with his wife, who deemed it "weird and cult-like".
Taking to Reddit, the 33-year-old said: "My family has a tradition where the first born will get a special stuffed animal. I got one from my mother when I was born, who got one from her mother, who got one from her father, and so on and so on.
"The reason that it's special is because the stuffing is made from their parent's hair.
"The way it works is that once a child is old enough to start getting their hair cut, their parent will save as much of that hair as they can.
"When the child becomes a parent themselves, the new grandparent will use the saved hair to make a stuffed animal to give to the baby.
"The hair in the toy represents the new parent's connection to the child and is a tangible measure that shows that they'll always be close by.
"The care taken by the new grandparent in collecting the hair and using it to make the toy represents the child's connection to it's family history and is a tangible measure that shows the extended family will always support them.
"In short, the stuffed animal is a way of connecting the new life to their new family."
He went on to explain how his mother spent weeks making the teddy bear after his daughter's birth, filling it with his childhood hair.
"Since my leave from work is just about over, I was excited to give my daughter the bear and share the tradition with my wife", he added.
"I thought she would think it was sweet, but she blew up at me.
"Instead of liking the bear, my wife said it was gross and disgusting and that she wouldn't have it around her daughter.
"I told her that it's our daughter, not hers, and that there's nothing disgusting about my family's tradition."
Despite him trying to reassure her that the "hair is clean and well preserved", they ended up arguing about it, with her threatening to throw the teddy in the bin.
He said: "I was shocked. This is something that represents decades of my mother's work and planning and generations of my family's history.
"I told my wife that if she's so cruel and callous about something that means so much to me and my family, then she's not the person I thought she was.
"She just called my family's tradition 'weird and culty'. I didn't know what to do. I didn't think my wife was this kind of person.
"I told my mother about the fight, and now she's feuding with my wife too. My wife then got her family involved before calling me some vulgar names."
After seeing his wife's reaction, he is now questioning whether he was in the wrong for wanting to give the teddy to their daughter - and has taken to Reddit to ask for users' thoughts.
In response, one user said: "The tradition itself is both sweet and gross at the same time. But I can definitely understand your wife being grossed out by your weird traditional doll."
Another user added: "You cant surprise your partner with family traditions, especially one where you give a baby a wad of dead hair."
A third user said: "I do think you should've let your wife know about the tradition beforehand though, to save this sort of argument.
"But I do think the aggression and name calling is unnecessary, it's not unhygienic just unusual."
One more user added: "Could you put your hair in a sealed bag and then put that in the bear and then fill the rest of the bear with regular cotton?
"Creates somewhat of a barrier between the child and the hair while also maintaining the tradition - a compromise, if you will."
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