Dad isn’t my bio dad, advice?
So when I was almost 21 (I’m 25 now) my parents told me that there’s a possibility my dad might not be my bio dad. The conversation went as good as you can guess, I wasn’t super upset but my parents shared that they wouldn’t have ever told me if the guy didn’t start working at a place I would frequent. They told me how he was a bad person in the past and some of the things he would do, such as follow my mom in the store, he got arrested for theft, etc. My dad offered to take a DNA with me if I ever decided I wanted to know, but he didn’t wanna know the results because to him it didn’t matter either way. Fast forward a few months, I am having a lot of anxiety and a hard time processing the information so i decided to ask my parents for the DNA test to try and get some peace of mind. To me they put off as my dad was my bio dad, they were leaning towards that. But my aunt who went through a similar situation and I looked to for comfort and advice, told me she felt like my mom leaned more towards the other guy (let’s call him B) as being my bio dad. She also told me some about what possibly happened between my mom and B (my mom didn’t tell me). It was not a good situation, even now I don’t know exactly what happened but I know it was traumatic for her. Well when I asked for the DNA my mom got very emotional. She told me his parents were also bad people and I shouldn’t open that can of worms, even though at the time I was only seeking an answer for my peace of mind not because I wanted to form any connections. She told me B was mean to her and her dad got her out of the situation. Then she went on about how blood means nothing. After that I decided I would never reach out because it wasn’t worth hurting my relationship with them because that conversation went downhill so quickly and was not good at all that I can’t imagine what would happen if I did form any connections. Recently I found out through an Ancestry DNA test that I am Bs kid. This has been a lot for me emotionally. His mom had reached out to me in the past and was very respectful of my boundaries (has even been to my place of employment and only had normal conversations with me, never bringing up who she is or who I am) but after the conversation with my mom I blocked everyone (my my blocked them when I first got my account and I unblocked to be nosey). B had not respected my boundaries when we talked about it in person at his job (our first time ever talking), he was telling people I was his daughter and showing me photos of his family after I said I needed time. He had reached out once when I was 18 and my parents said he was crazy to block him. Him not respecting my boundaries was part of the reason why I decided it wasn’t worth hurting my relationship with my parents because I worried my mom was right since he didn’t respect me saying I needed time. Since finding out I am in fact related to them it has been heavy on my mind that I can either chose to continue my life not knowing them and keep the same relationship with my parents, or reach out and at least talk with them. I’ve went 25 years not having a relationship with them, if they are bad people, I can block them and continue on with my life. I don’t think I can talk to my mom before reaching out to them though because of how badly the previous conversation went. I’m torn because I don’t wanna have any regrets later on. I don’t wanna regret not attempting to know them but I don’t wanna damage my relationship with my mom and they end up being exactly how she put them out to be. I know people change and I know whatever happened between B and my mom was bad. If anyone has went through similar and has advice please tell me. I have left out a lot of details as this is already a long post.
Posted Feb 15, 2026, 3:05 AM UTC