'AITA for being PISSED about my husband's April Fool's joke?' 'I was CRYING.'

"AITA for being pissed about my husband's April Fool's joke?"

Yesterday driving home with my 5 kids while my husband is away (he’s driving long-haul this week). 13 year old: dad was in an accident, he’s been trying to call you, but it won’t go through. He’s okay though. (we’ve been having problems with our phones). Me: you’re messing with me.

13 y.o: no I’m not. Long pause. Me: seriously are you messing with me? 13 y.o.: no. He was in an accident, but he’s okay. Call my husband in a panic, knowing that he always says he’s okay when he’s not.

Me, still driving a van full of kids: you were in an accident?! Husband: babe, it’s April fools. I hung up on him and had a mini-meltdown. I felt physically ill. Got all sweaty, and then my 13 y.o. noticed I was crying and repeatedly apologized.

My husband later gave me an apology (“I’m sorry” via text). When I tried to explain this morning that I’m still upset that he sent me into a panic for fun, he responded that he figured I’d see through it since it was April fools. I’m pissed and feel like my trust has been broken. Am I the ahole for thinking this was too far, and wanting a real apology?

Here's what people had to say about this one:

owls_and_cardinals said:

NTA. You did initially assume it was a prank, but obviously if you're told repeatedly that it's not, at some point you are going to believe it. A prank at the expense of the prankee is super crappy.

Even if your husband thought you wouldn't believe your child reporting a serious accident, the whole premise of the prank is to make you upset. That's not funny. It's not clever, creative, or like anything that a prank should be.

It's just low-brow, where the only "payoff" is that the prankster gets to either say a) "gotcha!" or b) "dude you're so gullible, how can you be so dumb?" I would also be pissed at him for teaching this to your kids - teaching them that it's ok.

Away_Refuse8493 said:

NTA. At first, I thought your 13-yo came up with this, and I still thought that was bad enough...But your GROWN husband came up with it.

NotCreativeAtAll16 said:

NTA. April fool's day is supposed to be jokes. Did you ask your son what part of his story is funny? He had many chances to come clean. He needs to learn you can take jokes too far.

CuriousEmphasis7698 said:

NTA. You definitely deserve an actual apology, not a justification or accusation of over reaction disguised as an apology. Your spouse also has some work to do to determine why he thought doing something that was literally designed to cause you distress was somehow funny to him...

...and why he felt making a 13 year old child who probably was not really in a postilion to decline to participate complicit in this was OK. Literally sit him down and make him explain to you how this was funny. And maybe think about why you are with a person who thinks that causing you distress is funny.

MerryMoose923 said:

NTA, but your husband is. There are some things that should never be the subject of practical jokes, and this is one of them.

NoHorseNoMustache said:

No you're not. Pranks are almost always, like 99.999999% of the time, mean and hurtful for someone. Pranks that aren't fun for everyone involved suck and there are almost no pranks that are fun for everyone involved. NTA.