SWNS
The son of a former submarine captain has spoken out about the email his father sent him and his sisters telling them all how disappointed he was in them.
Nick Crews, 67, a retired Royal Navy officer sent his two daughters and son Fred the message in February, complaining, among other things, that he and their mother, Sarah, were seeing 'the miserable death throes of the fourth of your collective marriages' and the effect on his beautiful grandchildren, 'these lovely little people being so woefully let down by you, their parents'.
It was published by the Mail on Sunday last week, after his daughter Emily, a mum of three, spoke to the paper about the 'horrendous' feeling she had upon reading the missive.
In his 's**t-o-gram', Nick Crews writes: "It is obvious that none of you has the faintest notion of the bitter disappointment each of you has in your own way dished out to us....
"Mum and I would not be too concerned as each of you consciously, and with eyes wide open, crashes from one cock-up to the next.
"It makes us weep that so many of these events are copulation driven, and then helplessly to see these lovely little people being so woefully let down by you, their parents.'
Fed up of 'being forced to live through the never-ending bad dream of our children's under-achievement and ineptitude', Mr Crews ends he wants to hear no more from them until they have something positive to tell him. He signs off: 'I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed. Dad'.
The enraged dad also told his offspring that despite having been given a private education they had 'contrived to avoid even moderate achievement' and that he could not 'confidently term' them 'properly self-supporting'.
The Telegraph reports that Mr Crews' 35-year-old son Fred has now said that he will not be dignifying his dad with another response as he had replied to the original email at the time.
Fred told the paper that his dad had 'compared us to his friends' children and said what an embarrassment we were and how he can't boast about us'.
Fred, who works in a taxi office, did however go some way to defend his dad: "My father made me who I am today and I think he did a good job. I do not leech off him, my mother or society - except for a brief stint on Job Seekers' Allowance - nor am I a criminal of any sort. I try to keep to the values I have been brought up with."
His unrepentant father yesterday said he would not be apologising to his children, and claimed he had received supportive emails from other parents. He signed off his
"There are people in society who desperately need financial support and for that support to be sucked up by people, my children, who could do better is not acceptable to me," Mr Crews told the Mail on Sunday.
"My message to other parents who feel as I do is that you have a social responsibility to say your piece. I can remember my father saying things to me that I didn't like to hear."
What do you think? Honest, or cruel?Have you ever sent a flamer email to a member of your family?