TIFU

So it actually was today that I fucked up. Sorry for formatting I’m on mobile. So today I (m28) decided to take my three kids out fishing with my Mom near a boat launch. All simple fun with the occasional messing around because the kids would end up snagged in a tree or on a log etc.

We had a few nibbles but no actual catching of fish and the kids were starting to lose their patience and getting bored of fishing. While all this was going on there was a boy probably around the age of 17 and his young nephew who was probably around 10 fishing from their boat that I had seen them messing around with and they were unable to start. They were tied off to the dock and we had some casual conversation about how they brought the boat out and it was the nephews dads but they weren’t able to get it started and so were waiting on the Mom to drive there to load it up on their trailer.

The Mom showed up after another hour or so and at this point my kids and mom had walked over to a nearby park as they were bored of fishing and I was cleaning up the left behind rods etc.

As I was finishing up their Mom had backed up the trailer into the water to load up the boat and they were trying to push and pull the boat by hand to get it on the trailer which she had parked at a very awkward angle. Basically you could tell they weren’t very experienced at the loading of the boat.

After a few minutes of watching them struggle I decided I should offer up my help and directed the Mom in backing up the trailer straight and hopping in the water to help line up the boat correctly and loading it on with the winch. I could visibly see the frustration in the mom’s face and hear it in her voice and kept assuring her it was no issue for the little bit of help I gave them. She then noted to me that it was usually her husband who would do the boat drop off and pickup and she had no experience doing it.

This is where I fucked up. I tend to have a problem where the minute a thought hits the brain it’s already sliding off the tip of my tongue. My dumbass then proceeded to joke saying; “well now you’re a badass at picking up the boat and won’t need your husband here ever again to do the job”. As soon as I said it I knew I said the wrong thing.her eyes got a watery look to them and she responded with “ my husband just passed recently and that’s why I’m stuck doing this”. Ugh I felt the color drain from my face and I squeaked out a “omg I’m so sorry to hear that” You could see her kid just stiffen up at the mention of his dads passing and so I helped them finish up in shame and quickly packed the rest of my things before meeting back up with my kids and my mom. I don’t think I’ll be forgetting this one for awhile and maybe next time I’ll learn to use my filter before speaking.

TL;DR I made a joke to a widow about not needing her recently passeds husband help ever again loading up their boat