At-home DNA kits are advertised everywhere nowadays and were on sale on Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the perfect family Christmas gifts. But one family learned the hard way that some things might be better left unknown.
From skeletons in the family closet to the likeliness of getting a disease you’d rather not have hanging over your head, these tests can easily turn lives upside down – and that’s in addition to the possibility of contaminating your sample (don’t set that tube down anywhere!) and getting incorrect results!
This particular story was shared on the subreddit TIFU (Today I F**ked Up), which is described as “a community for the dumb**s in all of us.”
A few days ago, Redditor Snorkles721 shared the following story about accidentally ruining part of Christmas for his family:
After purchasing DNA kits for the whole family, no could have imagined the mother’s reaction. It was clear that she didn’t want all of her children taking the DNA test.
The man went on to report that it caused a big Christmas blowout between his parents:
“Fast forward: Our parents have been fighting upstairs for the past hour, and we are downstairs trying to figure out who has a different dad.”
Oops!
Luckily, it sounds like the siblings handled it like adults:
“Update: Thank you so much for all the love and support. My sisters, brother and I have not yet decided yet if we are going to take the test. No matter what the results are, we will still love each other, and our parents no matter what.”
But the truth has a way of bringing people closer together and this family got an unexpected Christmas surprise that turned out for the best in the end.
“Update 2: CHRISTMAS ISN’T RUINED! My FU actually turned into a Christmas miracle. Turns out my sister’s father passed away shortly after she was born. A good friend of my moms was able to help her through the darkest time in her life, and they went on to fall in love and create the rest of our family. They never told us because of how hard it was for my mom. Last night she was strong enough to share stories and photos with us for the first time, and it truly brought us even closer together as a family. This is a Christmas we will never forget. And yes, we are all excited to get our test results. Merry Christmas everyone!”
It turns out the Redditor’s mom had lost her partner shortly after having her first child and simply let her blended family believe they were all full siblings. There were no scandalous affairs or nefarious secrets, just a story too painful to share until she had no choice.
In the end, what could have been a Christmas disaster ended up being a bonding opportunity.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for others who responded to the story with their own tales of DNA test drama. Not everyone is so lucky.
There sure are a lot of family secrets out there. No one could have imagined cheap and easy mail-in DNA tests 10 years ago.
But it looks like people are getting some long-held suspicions confirmed.
Even an employee of AncestryDNA chimed in to say that this kind of drama is not rare. Can you imagine manning the customer service phone lines or e-mail address at one of these companies?
While these at-home kits are providing some people with the answers they seek about their parents and heritage, they aren’t foolproof. It’s always best to have a doctor perform a genetic analysis before you write someone out of the will.
And while these tests also claim to be able to tell you about your health risks, Newsweek recently reported that almost half of the health results people receive could be misleading or downright incorrect.
So do due diligence before you let a $99 kit ruin your life.
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