My uncle yelled at my son and I’m emotionally overwhelmed

I (33f) have a 17 year old son. For context, I got pregnant when I was 16, was kicked out of my home, then I was taken in by my estranged uncle and his now wife (there’s a lot more to that story and it was a lot more traumatic but that’s what’s important). I call him “dad” now and he has been my biggest supporter and is always there when I need support, money, or just hugs. We live with them right now because last year things got really tough and I couldn’t afford to house my son and I by ourselves, so my uncle and aunt opened their house to us for as long as we need. They’re way too good to us.

My son and I got into an argument today over the school year that’s about to start because he just barely passed junior year and he’s going into his senior year of high school. He seems to really not care, and I was telling him he needs to graduate. It slowly started to escalate, then suddenly he made a really, really cheap and cruel shot about how terrible of a mom I am and how I do nothing for him and “it’s not like he’s gonna get knocked up and drop out.” I was kind of stunned and trying to think of something to say, but I genuinely was about six seconds away from crying.

My uncle quickly came into the room and said “excuse me?” and got in my son’s face and started to raise his voice and slowly started to full on yell about how he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about or what I’ve done and sacrificed for “his sorry ass”, and he went on to talk about how he’s a “goddamn moron” who doesn’t deserve me as a mom if he can’t see or appreciate how much I love him or how much of my life I’ve invested into him. My uncle is the most patient and well tempered person I’ve ever known in my life and I have never seen him lose his cool like that.

When he was done, my son just said “ok fine would you just leave me alone please” and went up to his room. My uncle and I stood there for a moment and then I went to my room to be alone for a bit. A little bit later, I went downstairs for dinner and my son came up to me and said he was sorry he said that and that he loved me. I hugged him and said I forgave him and I loved him too and we were able to move on and eat with my uncle and his wife.

It is 3:30am right now and I’m still riding the emotions of that. Just…I’ve never had someone say something that cruel to me and have never had anyone advocate so hard for me, and I’m still processing that big clash of emotions. I’m not even sure the impact of what either of them did has sunken yet.

Thank you for reading this. I’m happy I could express it somewhere.

tl;dr: my son made a really cheap and cruel shot at me when we were talking about his future, and my uncle barreled into the room and completely lost his school and yelled at him, defending me and I’m still processing this big whirlwind of emotions