rSlash - r/Offmychest I Was Forced into a Poly Marriage

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

0:00 Intro 0:07 Poly 3:26 Fake spanish 8:10 Group chat 11:53 Karma 13:48 Daughter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today, and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life.

Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Welcome to R slash off my chest, where O.P. gets forced into a Polly marriage. Our next credit post is from Foreign Basis. When I married my husband, I knew he was Polly. He told me that when we started dating. I ended the relationship, but after a couple of months, he told me that he was in love with me and would choose me over Pollyamory. It was my mistake and mine alone that I agreed because I was so in love with him.

I had to live with my decision to choose my heart over my brain. I've paid now with three of my best years taken from me. I can't even recognize the graying woman that I look at in the mirror. When we had our second child three years ago, he told me that he wanted to be Polly again. I refused and cried and raged, and he said that this was already decided, and I could leave if I wanted. I had just given birth and had a one-year-old. He made all the money because he told me to focus on my studies instead. One day, he came home with girlfriend number one to introduce her to me.

My world shattered. Six months later, he introduced girlfriend number two. I knew nothing about that world or the rules, and I probably still don't know because couples make their own rules and boundaries from what I understood. All I know is that after he introduced girlfriend number one, it felt like my soul left my body, and I was watching from the sideline. I just went through the motion and agreed to everything like I was in a haze.

He said I didn't need to have any contact with them. He will never get a new girlfriend behind my back and always tell me the truth. He also said that we, the women, are the ones to plan dates and decided who he spent time with and when. I was in a group chat with them and I basically never put my name into the planning. In the beginning, he didn't seem to notice or care, but after about a year, the problem started. He said that he never spent any time with me anymore and even if he promised that the dates would be planned between the women, he missed me, and he knew that I was not putting my name in on purpose. I told him that I was tired and busy, and he sure should feel happy that he had options,

and he should respect his own rules that, according to him, were always successful. The fights got worse, and sometimes he would spend the night in our place, even though it was decided that he would spend it with one of the other girlfriends. He said that I agreed under false pretenses, but I told him that he could leave me. He would rage and beg and love bomb and even crue. cry that he missed me. Lastly, he said that he wasn't happy anymore and wanted it to be just us again like the beginning of our relationship because he was miserable. What changed now? I got a part-time job at the company I did my internship at, so now I could have an income while studying. My mom is

moving to my city because she found a good job, and she rented a two-bedroom apartment. She said that she could give me one room, and she could help with my kids while I'm studying. Suddenly, I have no worries about rent and finances, and I'm graduating this summer. I've sent my husband an email telling him that I'm leaving. He's away on vacation, and when he comes home, I'll be gone. Pray for me after three years of a constant nightmare. I feel like I can unite with my soul again and wake up from this haze. I don't know, man, maybe people in the comments who are Polly will disagree with me, but to me, this is just straight up cheating. If you come into the relationship with the expectation of it being monogamous, and then the partner is just like, oh, hey, by the

way, we're Polly now. That's just cheating, I think. Our next Reddit post is from Cuperador. My grandfather is 83 and racist as hell. The kind where he'll say things like, why do they have to speak Mexican in public? And I just don't trust them about literally any brown person. He grew up in rural Ohio, worked at the same factory for 40 years, never left the Midwest. He's been like this my whole life. We've all tried talking to him, my mom, my aunt, and even me after a few people. beers at Thanksgiving. He doesn't listen. He's 83 and definitely not changing. Except he is changing because of me through lies. So my grandma moved into Sunrise Senior Living in Toledo two years ago after my grandma died and he couldn't keep up the house anymore. His main caretaker is this woman

named Rosa. She's from Guatemala and she's been in the U.S. for like 15 years and has two kids in high school. She's incredible. Patient, kind, gets my grandpa to take his blood pressure meds, which is a miracle because he's convinced they're too expensive to work. He was cold to her at first. You could tell that it was a race thing. He talked to the white nurses fine, but with Rosa, it was one-word answers and no eye contact. One day I'm visiting, it's a Sunday. I brought him those butter cookies from Costco that he likes. Rosa brings him his lunch, a turkey sandwich, apple juice, and a little cup of pills. He just grunts at her and doesn't say thank you. I've watched this man think waitresses at Bob Evans his whole life. He just won't do it for her. So after she leaves, I said, Grandpa, you should say thank you in Spanish.

She'd really appreciate it. And he goes, I'm not learning Mexican. And I don't know what possessed me, but I said, it's easy. You just say tecchio. It means thank you. To be clear, teciero doesn't mean thank you. Takeiero means, I love you. He practiced it like three times. Take Kiero, and his accent is awful. I told him it was perfect. He said it to her the next day. She looked confused for a second, then looked at me. I was sitting by the window pretending to read a people magazine, and I just slightly shook my head. She understood immediately. This woman is a saint. She just smiled and said, Danada, and walked out. That was two years ago. I visit every Sunday, and I've been teaching him fake Spanish ever since. Here's his current vocabulary. He thinks,

Kiero means thank you, but it actually means I love you. He thinks, Eres me Familia means good morning, but it actually means you're my family. He thinks me Corazon means excuse me, but it actually means my heart. He thinks, Ke Dios Tebendiga means see you later, but it actually means God bless you. He thinks Eres un Anheel means sorry, but it actually means you're an angel. So now, multiple times a day, my racist grandfather looks his Guatemalan caretaker in the eyes and says things like, you're my family, you're an angel, I love you, thinking he's just being basically polite. And here's the thing, it's working. Like something shifted. I don't know if it's because he's saying these words out loud, even without knowing what they mean, or if Rosa started being warmer to him

because she thinks it's hilarious, but he's different with her now. He asks about her kids, remembers their names. He saved her a cookie from his lunch last week, one of the butter ones that I bring. He told my mom on the phone that Rosa's one of the good ones, which is still racist, but like progress? For him it is. The bar is underground, but he's digging upwards towards it. Rosa knows everything. We talk about it when he naps after lunch, usually around 1.30. He's out like clockwork. We sit in the hallway by the vending machines, and I teach her the next phrase to expect. She says that she's never had a patient tell her that she's an angel six times a day. She calls him, me Estudiente, which he thinks means sir. He showed me a video she took of him practicing

Erismi Familia in the mirror, and I almost cried laughing in the Wendy's parking lot after. My family doesn't know. My mom visits on weekends and just thinks Grandpa's mellowing out in his old age. My aunt thinks the facility is doing something right. They don't know. It's because I've tricked him into speaking love to a woman he would have ignored two years ago. My only fear is he goes to the dining hall and tries his Spanish on someone else. Or my cousin brings her boyfriend who actually speaks Spanish and grandpa thanks him by saying, I love you, my heart.

I'll deal with that when it happens. You know, when I was in middle school, early high school, I confused the two phrases, Kpasa with Mikasa isu Kasa. And I thought the phrase was Kpasa Mikasa, which means, what is up, my house? And I would say that to people until someone who understood Spanish corrected me

and I felt like an idiot. Our next Reddit post is from Pain Slips to Gets So last year, I randomly get added to a WhatsApp group from an unknown number. I didn't care about it much at first, since getting added to a group you have no idea about is not something extraordinary. It was a group called Smith Family Chat with like 14 people in it. I assume it's spam. I was about to leave it.

Then I noticed that it's just normal people with like grandma profile picture, uncle with sunglasses, someone named Maria Kitchen. It was a family group, and I was now technically part of it. of someone's bloodline. It wasn't crazy dramatic. That's the part that kind of stuck with me. It was normal. Hospital visits, birthdays, someone's kid failing math, someone complaining about rent, granny sending those good morning pictures that looked like they were made in 2004, nothing viral worthy, just people existing. And for some reason, I kept checking it, not constantly, but like once in a while when I was bored. At first, I was going to leave instantly, but I don't know, Curiosity 1. I just thought, eh, I want to see how long it takes for them to notice. It took months.

I watched full family drama unfold like a weird Netflix show I didn't ask for. A cousin failing classes. An aunt beefing with an uncle about a dog. Someone got hospitalized. Everyone panicked, then she was fine. Birthdays, good mornings, those motivational images with glitter text. I knew so much about strangers I legally should not know. The creepiest part was that they kept tagging me like I was someone. They'd be like, you bringing chairs? And I would stare at my phone like, bro, I don't know any of you. I can't bring chairs. One time, they were arguing about what color to paint a room, and I swear to God, someone wrote, ask him, he's usually right about this stuff. About me, a random dude. I was suddenly promoted to family consultant in a house that I don't live in. I never said a word the entire time.

Total ghosts, just watched. Which sounds creepy, but I don't know, I didn't feel like spying. More like falling into a parallel universe by accident and refusing to leave because it's interesting. And the funniest, weirdest part is literally nobody ever questioned it, like at all. Months went by and nobody went, hey, why is he never replying? Or is he even reading this? Nothing. If they really thought that I was part of the family, you'd expect at least one person to poke me like, bro, you alive, but nope. And that kind of messed with me. Like, either they barely talked to that actual person in real life anyway, or they just collectively decided, eh, he's quiet, whatever,

which is somehow sadder. I kept thinking about the real guy whose spot I accidentally stole. Does he know he's supposed to be in here? Does he know they're planning stuff without him? Does he feel left out? I honestly felt guilty sometimes, like I kidnapped a spot in someone's family without meaning to. But I kept going, because I enjoyed listening to a bunch of strangers talking about their daily life. Seven months pass, and then one day someone finally asks, wait, who is this number? Then like six messages of who? Who? Who added? I panic, apologize, say wrong number, and immediately got removed. That's it. It was over. And weirdly, I still think about them sometimes. I'll just remember like, oh yeah, Maria finally got that job.

then realized that I'll never know what happened to any of them ever again. They felt more real than half the internet because nothing insane happened, just life. I don't know why that messed with my brain a bit. Maybe because sometimes you meet people, but don't really meet them, and then they disappear forever, and that's normal, but it feels strange anyways. Our next Reddit post is from Gabby. I made a choice that I thought was about love and a better relationship, a better future. I left my husband, the person who had committed to me for someone else. Oh, and how this new man encouraged me, showing me that I deserved better. My husband wasn't perfect. He didn't fully meet my needs. He didn't want to change, and I often felt unseen. But I now know that he would never do something like this.

Then this other man came along. He was exciting and loving. Had a better education, a better job. He was smart, and I felt like I found the one. He helped me cooking, helped me around the house. treated me with all love because I deserved everything, as he said. He had these amazing plans for us, and at the time it felt real, a house, a baby, a life together. We rented a house, bought a car, personalized our living room, our bedroom, got kitchen appliances, everything. It felt like we were building a life together, and I trusted it completely. We were long distance and trying to find ways for me to move or him to join. He packed everything and brought it over from another country. But now, he's gone after eight months. Suddenly, the future we built in my mind

doesn't exist. He tells me our age gap is too much, that he doesn't see a future without losing himself, that he stopped doing the things he enjoyed because he wanted to talk to me. He says the relationship with his daughter is bad because he gave me too much attention. I'm just shocked, but this is karma. He's far away and he doesn't talk much. Slowly, I'm starting to realize that that maybe this is just a way for him to make leaving easier. I left a committed relationship for someone who ultimately isn't willing to fight for us in the end. And now I'm here, heartbroken, trying to figure out how to live with my choice, my sadness, and the painful realization.

Well, O.P., easy come, easy go, as they say. Our next credit post is from legal membership. I've been with my husband for 13 years now, and we have three boys together whom I love more than anything. My husband never cheated on me, and I never worried about him. He's a homebody, and he's always trusted me with his phone and everything. He's a great husband and an even better father to our kids, and I feel blessed to have him in my life. A few weeks ago, my husband received a message on Facebook by this teenage girl, and she introduced herself as his daughter. He had no clue about her, and she told him her mom's name, and he

immediately recognized her. They dated for a couple of months 17 years ago, so it made sense to him. And the girl looked exactly like my husband. Apparently, the girl's mom died a few years ago, and she's been living with her uncle ever since, and she's really been wanting to have her relationship with her dad and get to know him for a while now. But she's been really scared and shy, and she finally worked up the courage to reach out. The girl is now 16, and she's exactly like how I imagined a daughter with him would look like, and she's so pretty and precious. He told her about me and my kids, and he invited her over to our house.

She and her uncle live half an hour away from us. Two weeks ago, she came with her uncle and we met. She was so pretty in real life and she was so shy. We sat and we talked for hours. She met our kids and us. My husband hugged and kissed her and she let me hug her too. She said she liked it and we've been talking to her every day since. My husband loves her and wants her to move in and I'd honestly love that.

I absolutely love kids and I've always wanted a daughter. I know she isn't my daughter technically, but I'd love her like one if she lets me. She's so pretty, and she's been through so much BS already at her very young age, it's unfair. And I just know that he would be a great girl dad to her. It honestly just makes me sad that we didn't find out about her sooner. I'm so excited for whatever comes next now. That was R slash off my chest, and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.