system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
My wife’s father has been seriously ill with diabetes for longer than the 11 years we’ve been together. He was never a real threat physically (though he’s Italian-American and all his buddies could fuck me up if he called in favors). He would never actually do that though.

My personal situation is that it was forbidden that I sleep in the same bed as my wife while we were dating and he caught me cuddling with her one morning (mind you I had just come up that morning). He said I wasn’t allowed to sleep over anymore (wasn’t the most difficult at the time because my wife was in college and about to go back for the semester). 

I was ready to go in with fighting words over how ridiculous the whole situation was. My biological father’s wife convinced me not to because he and her father had also fought over her and she gave me the same advice: it just makes the partner choosing between parent and partner suffer.

So I chose to take the loss and apologize for my wife’s sake, even though I did nothing wrong and had nothing to apologize for.
gpt
Or your wife could have called him out on an idiotic rule that relies on building a romantic relationship without any physical contact. Or you could have both agreed to walk out and spend time together somewhere else. His house, his rules sure but that doesn't mean you have to agree to them.

You say it hasn't affected you much but here you are remembering and posting on reddit about how you got screwed over years ago.

I get the protective dad shtick but enforcing your weird religious rules on other people and threatening with violence over trusting their kid to make good choices is absurd.