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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/DeffNOTGaryJohnson on 2026-07-19 15:46:46+00:00.

Ok, so I'm going to alter some details (names and such) to try to keep their identities secret. They are both college age and probably use Reddit.

About 6 months ago my daughter (Lilly) started talking about a boy named "Rusty" he was a friend of the BF of one of her friends. At first, it was just casual mentions as part of bigger stories, then more frequently. Then eventually they started dating.

Fast forward. She returned home from college.

**Backstory**

when she was little her and I got really into Pokemon Go. She played on her mom's phone until one Christmas when she got her own phone and made a new account. We were super into Pokemon go as a family for a few years, then we got kind of bored with it/she was becoming a teenager, and we mostly stopped playing.

~Back to the Present.

When she arrived home from college we were surprised to learn that she had gotten back into Pokemon Go. Apparently, Rusty was very into Pokemon Go and has gotten her back into it.

So naturally, her mom and I dusted off her old Pokemon go accounts and began adjusting to the rule changes that have happened within the past few years.

It's been fun rebonding with my daughter over Pokemon Go

My daughter's boyfriend arrived in town in time for Pokemon go fest special events.

When my daughter formally introduced us she did not call him Rusty, she called him by his full first name, which starts with the same letter as Rusty, so I didn't think much of it.

This weekend we all went out Pokemoning together,

We went to a spot where there were a bunch of special raids in a close proximity. My wife and I don't have a raid group anymore since it's been years, and my daughter and Rusty's raid group, is from their college. So, we had to rely on waiting for other raid parties to enter a gym and then jump in on their raid.

This resulted in not all of us getting into the same raid at the same time, and I eventually wound up with just Rusty while my wife and daughter were off on another raid.

We started making the kind of small talk you make with your daughters BF, where your main goal is to do your best to not make it awkward.

He mentioned wanting to be an accountant, and I asked what accountants do when it's not tax season.

He explained about how they mostly work for big companies and help them sort out their finances etc. .

To fill the gap in the conversation, I offhandedly said "Rusty sounds like the name of a mechanic not the name of an accountant" and chuckled.

I saw him make a weird face, Followed by an awkward silence, then eventually he said "So, does EVERYBODY here just call me Rusty now?"

The tone in his voice was kind of embarrassed. (Or awkward)

And it seemed like a very weird question so I immediately knew it was missing something.

I replied, "well that's just what Lilly has always called you when she would talk about you to us over the phone.

He kind of said "oh. . ." And there was another awkward silence wherein I knew that I had F-ed up the whole "don't make it awkward" thing, but I wasn't sure how. Then another Raid party came to the gym we were waiting at, and we jumped in with them and acted like the previous conversation had never happened.

Later that night, in private I asked my daughter about the name Rusty (which I had just assumed was a nickname that people called him) she replied with" You didn't actually CALL him Rusty, did you?

Turns out, she had made up that name because he strongly reminds her of a cartoon character with the same name, from a show she used to watch.

So, it wasn't a nickname that he had grown up with, but rather a pet name she had given him. . .

She seemed kind of upset by this, which made me mortified. (I think the kids these days say "cringe")

We're all supposed to go Pokemoning again later tonight. I'm going to do my best to forget this happened, and hopefully he'll do the same.

I'm definitely going to feel weird about it until I talk to him again and call him by his proper name.

TL;DR: I accidentally called my daughter's new BF by her pet name for him while trying to bond playing Pokemon Go out in public, thinking it was his nickname.