To think this was a really mean thing to do?

[ButY]

Regular poster but name changed.

Not sure if I'm overreacting but feeling really hurt.

I have quite bad anxiety, so Christmas is always a tricky day to negotiate but I'd say I have it quite well under control. And i definitely appreciate that the day is about my kids, not my issues, so I try my best to keep a lid on it and stay calm.

I'd made it through present giving, breakfast, family walk, was upstairs getting changed, literally no clothes on. Suddenly hear loads of noise downstairs. Shout down what's wrong, no answer. Next thing I hear screaming and DS2 shouting "Oh my god, oh my god!" Then DS1 starts screaming "DS1! DS1! Omg DS1" and DH joins in also screaming. They sound totally terrified, so I literally have a panic attack on the spot. Grab my dressing gown, have never run downstairs so fast in my life thinking something awful happened to DS1.

To find them all screaming in the lounge and a huge crack on tv screen which we only got last year. Simultaneously relieved Ds1 alive and furious about tv, as I also suffer with OCD symptoms and find any damage / marks very upsetting. Must admit I swore. Then they all start laughing hysterically. It's some stupid app that makes a tv screen look cracked.

I burst into tears and ran upstairs. They are all still laughing. I felt actually sick when the adrenaline kicked in, my heart was pounding. DH couldnt understand why I was so upset and cross and keeps saying I must have been up to something upstairs that got me upset!

I just feel ganged up on and like it's a horrid trick to play on someone, let alone someone with anxiety. And on Christmas. AIBU?

YABU. But I say that gently.

A soft YABU if you make a huge deal about it and don’t laugh it off after a VERY large gin and making them all do the washing up for being so horrible 😄

I have anxiety and I get it - they scream and you go full mamma bear and the adrenaline just goes for it. But they were trying to have fun with you. It will be one of those things you look back on in years to come and laugh at.

A practical joke is only funny if everyone finds it funny.

I would be pissed off with something like this, not so much the cracked screen part but the screaming enough to make you think someone is hurt / something has gone seriously wrong .

I disagree. Yanbu. Your dh is an absolute dick if he knows you suffer from anxiety and he still played this stupid trick on you. And at the very least he could have apologised when he realised you weren't laughing along, not tried to put it on you.

Ah this video has over a hundred million views on YouTube, I think most families have played this trick at some point! Kids find this stuff hilarious.

They honestly weren’t trying to be malicious

Yeah it was mean. But I imagine you are quite difficult to live with. I have enormous amounts of emparthy for anxiety - but some people polled become very self centred in their anxiety and it sounds like this could be you -

It was clearly a joke, but it’s not the sort you can take due to your Mental health problems and they should know this.

I find practical jokes to be mean-spirited, so it's a YANBU from me.

That is not ok. Your family are laughing at you. You are the butt of their joke and its cruel.

OP

They owe you an apology and to learn some empathy

I don't like pranks. So I think YANBU. Everyone has a different line though so some people will think something is fine and others will think it's too far.

I think YANBU at all, that was nasty, especially from loved ones who must know about your anxiety.

I hope you are feeling better and more relaxed.

I agree with you. Pranks and practical jokes are more often mean than funny and this one definitely sounds unpleasant.
There’s no kindness in it at all. A glass of squash that turns out to be made of jelly is a surprise treat, but this situation is ‘we scared you and now we’re laughing at you’. It would only be appropriate to play those tricks on people who also played them and enjoyed that humour.

I really hate practical jokes so I've voted YANBU. It's only funny if the 'victim' also thinks it's funny.

I wouldn’t find this one bit funny.

I understand why you’re upset but for the sake of Christmas cheer etc just try and laugh it off, your dc thought they were being funny.

That's a truly foul thing to do. It's not funny if everyone doesn't find it funny, and playing on people's anxiety is never amusing.

The emotional reaction is the adrenaline being dealt with. Last winter, DS2 burst through the back door in the snow, shouting "oh my god Mum, help", having driven home from his GF's in the snow for the first time. I embarrassed him by bursting into tears because he frightened me so badly. You are not the person with a problem here.

Yanbu. If you know somebody gets anxious about this stuff, then it's a dick move to do it.

Practical jokes are usually the preserve of wankers at the best of times.

YANBU. The kids are totally forgivable but your DH could have reasonably foreseen that you would find it more upsetting than the average adult. I presume he wouldn't tip a wheelchair user onto the ground and point and laugh, but he's happy to trigger your mental health and find it funny. Gee, what a catch he is.

I firmly stand by my belief that no prank or practical joke is ever funny! Yanbu!

I sympathise op and I think that was an incredibly nasty thing to do. Practical jokes are the most immature and mean spirited form of humour and no one I know would do something like this and find it funny.

A joke that makes you think your child is injured or dead is not fucking funny. I’d have been imagining a bloodbath after all that screaming. How's that funny?

If they’d have just shouted, "omg, mum, DS1 broke the tv!" and then admitted the joke after you'd gone that could have been funny. They ruined it themselves by making it seem like so much more than a broken telly.

I think it sounds hilarious, but your DH should know you well enough to know this sort of thing would upset you, so he was BU to do it.

A joke that makes you think your child is injured or dead is not fucking funny. I’d have been imagining a bloodbath after all that screaming. How's that funny?

Exactly. Even if the OP didn't have anxiety, that had to be terrifying.

Mmm I've seen this prank done loads of times so I think this:

I just feel ganged up on and like it's a horrid trick to play on someone

Is slightly unreasonable, kids are silly and it was a prank not some malicious attempt to gang up on you.

Though I think the screaming etc enough to make you think someone was hurt is over the top

Thank you all so far, it's hard to judge sometimes when you aren't sure of yourself. Yes, it's not the cracked screen that bothered me so much as thinking something awful had happened. I get that it's a practical joke and not meant maliciously and I 100% know I'm not easy to live with which is why I honestly do try to keep it under control and even though they still think I'm a PITA they have no clue what it'd be like if I didn't reason with myself constantly.

But i do really feel like, PITA or not, I'm what they've got. My kids aren't teenies either - they're old enough to "get it". Esp DS1 who actuslly has anxiety himself and I've always been his biggest ally. But it's DH I'm saddest with. If you can't feel understood and relaxed in your own family, esp at Christmas...where can you? As another poster said, a joke is only funny if not at someone's expense, esp by people they care about.

But - i realise it is Christmas. And they HAVE now apologised so I'm taking a bit of time out to chill out then will try to hug and laugh it off.