All Comments on 'Nature vs. Nurture'

Terrible.

You could have added a talking dog and goldfish to it and it would not have made it less realistic.

Your assumption that a child birthed by a heroine addict would grow into a troubled child, given the advantages he would have, due to his Father and Mother's economic status, was ludicrous. Was the heroine Mother mentally challenged? Thomas wouldn't know that answer. Was the biological Father from a poorly educated family that had medical issues in their pasts? Thomas wouldn't know that answer either. You assume just because the Mother was a heroine addict that she was no good? You've never seen healthy, wealthy, spoiled children go off the rails? The entire premise of this story didn't work as it was both improbable and unbelievable. Your time line is also messed up. He hasn't seen his ex-wife for 18 years. Benjamin is 18 years old. He was devastated by the divorce. Yet he has a 2nd wife and three daughters. One of which has to be at least 17 or 18 years old to be going to her prom. Yeah - I don't think he's broken up by his divorce, finds a new woman to save him and then immediately knocks her up with a baby in zero time flat. The details were poorly thought out in this train wreck. Try again.

A great story! I would never have even imagined a LW story based on Trading Places. You did it proud. He took her baby that wasn't his and made sure it wasn't theirs either. That's revenge of another level on the cheating wife and asshole lover.

Speaking it was a Wonderful revenge on the Faithless wife and Dr. They got better then they deserved. Now she can go home and tell her Husband about the hypothetical story of their sons beginning. Maybe they can do DNA test on their son.

Yes, he fucked his wife over, but the kid paid the price. Cold.

Dude, I just gotta say, I love your writing!!!

Ah that was a wonderful BtB.

Tricking a cheating slut into raising a troubled addict's baby instead of her lover's bastard was a beautiful bit of karmic justice. He actually did a good deed for Vivian's son, saving him from being raised by a whore and an asshole.

Using children as unwitting pawns in some weird and creepy revenge, and writing that for entertainment seems... like something a psychopath would do. Not for me.

GREAT STORY!!!

PS: Any MORON who doesn't like it,

is just an IDIOT!

5*

Love this tale of long term revenge - just too bad that she doesn't have any motherly instinct as regards the changeling she has been raising for the last 18 years. Then it would have really stung.

5/5

18 years of well lived vengeance

He's my kinda sneaky bastard!

Great story!

5 stars!

one thing got to me though his remarriage and daughters, but to stay that dark. idk seems a bit off ty for the read

Although it seems likely that Vivian and Gerry would have long ago had a DNA test done on the baby, just to be sure who the father was. I mean, surely they would have thought there was some possibility that Thomas was the father, since he must have been screwing Vivian, too. But good story. Please post again soon.

One of the coldest yet most outstanding BTB stories yet posted... hypothetically of course! LOL!!!

While switching babies seems extreme, the reasoning behind it was presented very well. A man facing that depth of betrayal will strike out in almost every way possible. The wife's disrespect and contempt created a situation which drove her husband insane, at least temporarily.

The interesting thing in this tale is how the truth seemed to set her free. She was suddenly able to un-love her son and write off her failure with her son as his genetic deficiency rather than her poor parenting. She left happier than she was when she arrived.

The unexplained part was how a doctor with a married girl friend accepts her child as his without DNA testing, just to be certain. The other oddity is why she went to the man she cuckolded to seek his help after 18 years.

Great story, just needs one or two more concluding paragraphs.

so finish the story. He either lied to her about the exchange just to drive the stake in a little dipper or he really did switch them, which was it.

I know some one who did just that,22 years later and the shit storm has happened ,he on the other hand is free of it he died some years ago all i can say is there are a lot of DNA tests going on ,dirty secrets both small and large seeping from the wood work and two very confused 21 year olds .So yes cold the story was, however imagine how cold ,how mentally destroyed the man was both in the fiction of the story and the real life happening.Food for thought people food for thought ................

Greatest BTB of all time!

In addition to being one of the best BTB stories ever, all you authors out there with diarrhea of the keyboard should note, one page!

Original, and dastardly so. I was entertained. Perhaps the best revenge against a cheating spouse ever, even if dastardly! 5*

That could and did actually happen. I remember an article in the 1970’s about switching babies in many major hospitals. I have no idea how prevalent it was or how they (parents and kids) could have found their dna relatives since dna matching wasn’t a thing then. As to the story, it brought a new way to get a BTB tale written. At least new to me. Imagine now, knowing the fact that her ex probably (because she has no proof) did carry out this plan, what her life could have been if she had just come clean with him from the beginning? Even if she would not wonder about that, I imagine that she would try to get a dna rest to see if Ben is her son. How much worse would it be to kind out that he really is her son? She then couldn’t blame his problems on being a 16 year olds drug addicted child. It would be her and the doctor who fails to raise their child up right. I’d think that might be a bigger kick in the ass.

Benjamin raised by 2 cheaters, a wife stealer and a slut, 50% scumbag combined with 50% scumbag teaching him right and wrong and he turned into a scumbag.

The other kid raised in a decent family was doing well and moving toward a successful career.

Can imagine the conversation:

Son - "Why did dad do that to me?"

V - "He wasn't your dad, he was my husband."

S - "Hmmm.... bye then."

I'm already turned off by him calling her back. I know it's needed for the story, but I assume that she denied him custody, and NOW after 18 years it's HIS son?

"tack" not "tact"

I have to agree with kimi on the cruelty of playing with the kids' lives.

What kind of dreams do you have at night? You dreamed up a tale that few of us could envision. Top marks for a tale which has not been told to my knowledge.

he never switched children

the whore just resolved her self to cut her real son and only child out of her life

Once Benjamin dies he will tell her the truth and she will have to live with the fact she abandoned her child and left him to die alone

Not bad, not bad at all :)

Fuq yeah ! Karma Train ran the two Asswipes right the Fuq over ! LMAO

All the stars I can give , plus a favorite story .

A wonderful story, nicely written .

Just plain WOW! 5*

This story!!! Best story I’ve read in moths! Please continue to grace us with more like this one. Bravo!

First she had a affair ,so the Dr .she wound up with would do a DNA test to determine parenthood. Switching babies at birth with a drug addicted mother seems far fetched here. I get the revenge . It seems he could have a suit going against her as he paid for her education and should be entitled to alimony. Boy they both have no redeeming value . All characters here suck. Now he could be charged with the switch if she could get the medical records on the birth. And why would she show up after 18 years considering she new it wasn’t his son. So strange as written.

Seizing such a spontaneous opportunity to trip with her head was wonderful!

Better yet would be if she finally does a DNA test and finds she's still the mother of the brat she mal-raised. Problem is, she'll probably not check because she wants to be rid to the kid so bad.

I agree with Anonymous Re: Plot twist and ReadyOne, that it turns out that he was just playing with her head, that he never really switched babies.

The wife? Or the "wronged" husband?

This has got to be the greatest BTB revenge plot ever. I wish it were longer but that may have actually detracted from the story. What a diabolical plan to pull off. Awesome!

You gotta love it...***** 5 stars!

great little tale.

Absolutely original and funny as hell

... but Ankur: what about the continuation of your obviously unfinished story "Containing the Situation" from June '19?

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Held my attention and had me wondering what he just had to tell her. Very creative story.

Really writing great plot concept and Obvious plot holes that I can find. Very enjoyable story

please write some more you have a Unique perspective

This encounter makes zero sense.

It's like this was designed as the second half of a story where the ex-husband raised the kid for a few years and the ex-wife figured he'd have some sort of connection to him even though he wasn't biologically his... except that they got divorced right after the kid was born, and the kid's parentage would have been made abundantly clear during the divorce proceedings (to clear up any potential child support/custody issues).

"But he is still your son!" is a statement that makes no sense in this context, when the kid is neither biologically his nor did he raise him or spend any time with him.

I'm going to leave aside the part about him spilling his guts, and therefore giving his ex-wife all kinds of leverage over him (if he's telling the truth), since it's possible he's lying or just very stupid, and there's nothing in the story that makes the latter out-of-character.

Not the usual LW story, for sure--a different kind of retribution, isn't it? The 'real' Ben apparently grew up, in a loving middle-class environment with parents affluent enough to send him to law school, so there's no legitimate concern about how his world was manipulated. Well contrived plot and nicely developed.

The story definitely had holes. Obviously, if he thought the child could potentially be his to start with (so that the child could have passed as his) then there was 50% chance that the child he gave away was his, unless there was a DNA test done. It seems prenatal DNA tests started in 2010 (just googled, but didn't research too much so may have been sooner). So, he could have fucked over his own blood.

Two, the hospital would have records of all the children born around that time, and could likely go back and find one that was adopted away. Second, if the child was adopted away he would not have access to who got the child. Even the bio mother wouldn't have that info. So, he couldn't keep track of that child.

But, I do agree with the premise of the story in that nature has maybe more to do than nurture in at least the potential, if not the actual realization of success.

Last point, as fiction I liked the story and will give it 4* for inventiveness. Because the holes were not answered, and secondly because from the minute he brought it up it became obvious what he had done 4* I think is pretty generous. And because it's fiction I like the inventiveness of it.

However, If this was real life, I would think that his actions were much more morally depraved than her's or the doctor's. I know many in the LW world would disagree, but for me it's not even close. Playing god, and fucking up the future of two blameless children is totally fucked up. No matter if the children both turned out well, it's still a very fucked up thing to do to two innocent newborns.

That was one creative BTB. You, sir, are my new favorite. Lean, well-reasoned prose is rare here or anywhere. Take, for example, this very comment.

For the nit pickers...

Why no previous DNA test? The bitch and her asshole were already convinced of the paternity. Whatever they did, both were medical professionals and extremely intelligent, so we have to accept they knew what they were doing. Even if they were incorrect, they had no reason to suspect until now.

He wins either way. Either he stuck her with a defective baby, or her parenting skills are defective. He must know his experiment was flawed from the beginning because there were two variables present: the nature and the nurture. To be considered properly, either the subject or the setting needed to be identical, and neither were.

However it turns out, his ex has had a terrible eighteen years.

How could his daughter be attending a prom? She’d be sixteen if she’s a junior, so it’s possible just by the numbers. He certainly could be over the bitch and find a better woman in that timeline. In these days of divorce and remarriage, he could be a stepfather or have adopted an older child. All of these scenarios are probable.

Finally, the switch itself is all too believable. My wife and I were convinced the child brought to us after a break was ours until we looked at the bracelet and realized nurses made a mistake. This was an expensive place, and it could have easily happened there.

I wish they were longer, but you know how to punch a knockout and bail. Please keep writing.

This story is a new plot line on LW, which is very difficult to do. Excellent!

At least someone has a grain of sense.

At least Vivian had the comfort of knowing the Benjamin she raised did not grow up to be a lawyer.

I truly chortled while reading that sentiment.

Both Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd would probably love this story...high quality comedy.

Bravo!

5*****

It's different, very entertaining and packs a lot in a small package. Wish you wrote more, and more often. Maybe it's time for Pt.2 of Containing the Situation.

I agree with the sentiments regarding kids. But come on kimi et al! Did he really switch kids? He fooled more than just his ex. I think the Doc would have had a DNA test done before raising his lovers baby.

This isn't a true "nature vs. nurture" situation. Ben's problems are more likely due to his birth mother's drug addiction, not his genes.

Woe! The best original burn the bitch and lover story I have ever read on LW.

Write on!!!!

Should be in the non-erotic section but was funny to read.

Thanks.

OK, OK I get it - the almost ultimate BTB. But per the title is the author trying imply that bad genes put Ben in this hole or rotten parenting - unclear? I say rotten parenting - as no kid even a crack baby is born bad.

But this story, in my opinion, shows the divorced father as totally despicable for allowing his son to be adopted and not being part of his life.

I can see Ben having a DNA test done, ASAP, due to Viv's vanity. I also expect Viv like her present husband to abandon Ben to the court system. May Viv burn in hell.

Overall not a good story, thought provoking but written with too many loose ends to create controversial unknowns, 3*.

I am lost,who are they talking about and what was that about 0% DNA.?

I don’t know if he really has followed the progress of the switched baby, it only matters now that Vivian has approached him about her problem child still assuming that her ex believes Ben his his baby, while it is clear that under the lax procedures in

Gerry's hospital at the time, he was able to switch the babies, so Viv & Gerry were "cuckolded" in a unique and devastating way. Vivienne now has to consider whether to abandon her child herself, keep quiet about it, or explain the situation to Gerry and hope he will find their real child through the adoption agency, and abandon Ben. It still puts a final strain of both these manipulative monsters who have been manipulated within the flawed system they carried on their affair and had their cuckold baby who has been raised by another family. A beautiful idea and perfect BTB and Burn the Bastard fornicator too.

"shows the divorced father as totally despicable for allowing his son to be adopted"

The baby wasn't Thomas' son.

Vivian had an affair with Gerry (the doctor) and deliberately got pregnant by him. They tried to trick Thomas into believing he was the father, to make him pay child support for a baby that wasn't even his. Thomas swapped Vivian and Gerry's baby for the crack baby... and put their real son up for adoption. This was the equivalent of a wife tricking her husband into raising a bastard, except in this case, Thomas tricked his ex-wife and her lover into raising the crack whore's child.

Vivian only came crawling to Thomas asking him to help "his" son, because her second husband (Gerry, the doctor) had given up on Ben. She is still trying to pedal the lie that Thomas is the father as a last-ditch effort to keep her son out of jail. Vivian explains this to her ex-husband:

"Gerry has cut him off and won't even hire a lawyer to defend him...he says he deserves to be in jail"

It's a very clever and very cruel bit of revenge against a pair of cunts who really deserve to have their lives ruined.

Well done.

and 200% for reminding me to watch the movie again, if only to see Jamie lee Curtiss's perfect chest.

Feel a little sorry for Benjamin though.

It presumably WASN'T his son, but his wife's lover's son.

They were talking about the baby: "I wanted the baby to be 100% our DNA, you wanted him to be 50% our DNA and he ended up being 0% our DNA."

Thomas wanted the baby to be their DNA, i.e. his and Vivian's.

Vivian wanted it to be 50% "their" DNA, i.e. hers and new hubby's.

The baby ended up with 0% "their" DNA, because it had the junkie's DNA and her baby daddy's DNA, none of either Thomas' or Vivian's DNA.

the percentage of KNOWN women that later on in life ADMIT to lying and passing off another lover's child as her husband's is already pretty high. imagine how high the number actually is.

women have zero empathy for this sort of evil action. but after reading a story like this one, they may decide to grow some understanding. maybe it could prevent more more instances of this sorta evil trickery. also the shitty 'alpha' men. imagine thinking you're some big swinging rooster, bragging about 'your kid' that you pawned off on some poor guy. only to later find out it's not even yours! he'd still be single, but also fatherless. can't imagine a more fitting ending for guys like that.

Great storytelling very entertaining read. Thanks for sharing.

Finally an original plotline in LW...I liked the humorous bent...Some people are taking it way too serious...for the people that are going on about the timeline, the author didn't say Grad he said Homecoming...in our HS you can go to Homecoming as a Freshman so the girls could be as young as 14...

I sit here smiling after reading a very very good story! Thanks for the tale and please keep on writing. Strong 5 *.

"Buckeye Fan"

with the other commenters that this was truly excellent; even exceptional. The real beauty (IMHFO) is that had she not knocked on the door, he wouldn't have been able to truly bask in his achievement. Oh sure, he knew the outcome of his experiment, but to be able share the story with Viv had to be the crowning moment for the MC.

Lovely karma.

Bravo.

Powerful BTB with a perfect plot.

Simply a great story.

Top ratings from me.

Why is it that when I resolve not to comment on LW stories, one pops up that is brilliant.

My dilemma now is whether to score or not, you see I used to comment without actually scoring, and now I score without comment. Damn, do I just put up 5stars or not.

It doesn't really answer the "nature vs. nurture" question. Did Benjamin turn out to be a drug-addicted louse because he was the son of a 16-year old heroin addict, or was it because he was raised by a duplicitous cheating whore and her wife-stealing asshole boyfriend?

That movie! A true classic.

One of the first ancillary discoveries of the human genome project was that over 20% of children had no relation to the man they thought was their father

This number held true across cultures, religions, countries, races, and socioeconomic status

between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 children are the result of infidelity

Would be if Thomas had made up that whole story and Benjamin really was Vivian's and Gerry's biological son, who grew up the way he did because he was born of a pair of scheming cheats and raised by them and is now going to end up abandoned by both of them. Nature AND nurture.

what is up with all those periods lol u only need 1 to finish a sentence

He and Dr's wife stayed. Why?

She had proof of cheating

Dr would be paying big time

Our hero? Some but not for child not his born after divorce

Why why why stay?

Wimpy cuckold tendency?

This is one of the top 10 revenge stories on this site

1 star

This is one very sick story.

Neither baby would have done very well with the two cheater parents.

To me this is a fantasy the cuck made up if the ex-wife ever came to his door.

It is a great fantasy from that perspective.

However, no one can convince me the ex-wife would ever show up at his door after 18 years NEVER HAPPENIN'.

This is a great story. She is a whore and deserves to be treated as one. Her second husband is a shot, a wife stealing pimp. It makes my heart sing to see stories like this where there is some sort of justice. Of course chances are, Benjamin is just the product of being raised by two amoral assholes and the revenge story was made up to hurt the stupid cunt.

Remarkable story, so damn good that even Harry liked it.

5*****

This is a highly unlikely scenario .... but, oh, what an ingenious way to screw with someone's mind!

Great story!

I don't understand why Vivian has come to see Thomas. What does she want?

I liked this a lot. I do think our hero should throw Ben a bone. Maybe pay for a lawyer and rehab. Do it anonymously. Don't do for Vivian. Do it for society

Ok even though it would never happen (far fetched would be a slight understatement) it was still fun.

Since she knew the baby wasnt his, but still acted like it, did she get him to pay child support? Im assuming he must have been since she thought he thought he was Bens dad. But if he knew he wasnt the father, he, like no man would pay child support for another dudes kid .....and no the dickless gay cucks who love the thought of someone elses kid in his wifes belly, because they prefer to not touch pussy, go figure, don't count.

And why go to him to discuss Ben when she knew Ben was hers and the Doctors? Thats all based on her NOT knowing Ben wasnt hers.

More than a couple of plot holes, if they had been filled it this would have been wicked good.

Another clever offering. BUT! What a terrible thing you let happen to Benjamin! 8^ )

Five stars.

I like Trading Places, and it's an interesting idea that I have no problem with as a matter of justice, unlike many pearl-clutching readers. But there is simply no way that a heroin-addict's baby is not going to be fucked up in a way that would be easily detected after birth, e.g., birth weight, behavior, etc. Odds are they would figure it out, especially if a doctor-lover is seeing the kid every day. Just doesn't get over the plausibility hump.

SunnyU2, Society can pay for it themselves.

THAT WAS FUN!!!

5***** Brilliant!

genial

Fun on the surface yes, just, perhaps the best revenge story in LW. Oh but we lament you left so many rabbit holes for us to follow it distracts from a fantastic and potentially realistic possibility.

What did Vivian think her ex could do to help Benjamin’s problem? The story has no foundation.

One commentator speculated that Thomas made the whole story up just for a little revenge on his ex. But Thomas would have to be very quick witted to create the story on the spot.

Finally, a DNA test on Ben will quickly determine if there is any validity to Thomas’s story. If Ben’s DNA doesn’t match Vivian, the doctor or Thomas then Thomas’s story has some validity. But that still doesn’t answer the question “what can Thomas do for Ben?”

Wow!

What a great flash story.

That's what we call a BTB.

And the slut didn't even know it!

Loved the film too.

Top ratings from me.

Absolutely brutal!

Love a great short story.