Why did the daughter tell him about...(Spoiler)?

Because it's a screenplay, and it requires a vehicle for Matt to find out about the affair. Sorry to pick on you, but you people that talk about fictional characters like they are real people really need to check your perspective. Characters are not the story. The story is the story, and characters are just modes for conveying the story. The Descendants isn't a soap opera. It's a film. And questioning the characters' actions is an exercise in futility. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

Because teens don't usually think things through in that much detail. She seemed to be closer to her dad than her mother, so regardless of the bad timing, being a teen she'd spill her guts to him, which she did.

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Alexandra was smart and sensitive. She couldn't stand to see her father pining away and blaming himself for something that wasn't his fault. It showed loyalty to the family unit and to her father to tell him. It would have been easier for her to say nothing, but she couldn't stand the idea of her father beating himself up over an illusion. It was brave and honest for her to tell him.

"I can see no reason to tell the father about the mother's affair since she was soon going to die"

... As the other commenters have pointed out: At the moment, Matt is saying to her (essentially) "Look, I know you two (you and your mother) had some big argument, but we have to put that aside now; you are being selfish by being this way when I need us to pull together here ..."

.. And she is answering (truthfully), "**I'm** selfish?? **I'm** not pulling together??? I was fighting with mom because ***she was betraying you***!!"

Well you are not the daughter are you? Just because you might react in a certain way doesn't mean anybody else, real or fictional, should react the same way.

The reason she told him was that he'd understand they weren't fighting about something small and insignificant that could just be swept under the carpet. She was also annoyed that her dad was picking on her for being selfish, when she was really standing up for him and she couldn't stand to be criticized for that.

But really, questioning the action's of characters in this story is a pointless activity, unless of course those actions are completely ridiculous, or go against character etc. The actions of the daughter might come across as the wrong thing to do to you, but it's quite believable that a person would behave in that way under the circumstances.

I'm writing this signature in bold so people know it's a signature

I think some kids would say nothing, but I think others would. It really depends on the personality of the kid. Since this was a brash teenager who didn't tend to hold back her thoughts/feelings and many kids would feel betrayed by her mother's affair too, it's not all that surprising.

Well, if mom was going to recover and they were going to have a chance to hash it out on their own terms (fight it out, split up, get over or get past it), I could see Alex saying, "let Dad find out on his own and then the two of them deal with it as they see fit."

But once it became clear she was not going to wake up and she was going to die before she and Matt had a chance to hash it out, he had the right to know. For better or worse he had a right to know where he stood with his wife.

I think Alex correctly sensed that he would eventually deal with it and forgive her before she died.

This way there is no chance that someday he is going to get blindsided out of nowhere with this discovery.




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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.