Just a little bit ago, my (F44) husband (M50) was driving with myself and our two teenagers in the car. We exited one freeway to enter onto another. We had to merge left into traffic, which was done pretty smoothly. Almost immediately after, another lane joined from a different freeway, which becomes an exit only. We needed to be in this lane. My husband turned on his signal, did a shoulder check and changed lanes to the right and immediately began to speed up because the traffic we were in was going a bit under the speed limit (which is common right here). Just as he started to do that, the lady in the car in front of us, merged over quickly without her turn signal. I said "she's merging!" a little loudly and he had to stomp on the brake to avoid hitting her. He honked at her and I believe he was in the right for this. She merged without a signal and almost hit us.
After we barely avoided hitting her we were following her. I had a bad feeling, so I told my husband to give her some following room. It was a good thing too, but she brake checked us really hard. My husband had to slam on the brakes again to avoid hitting her. She brake checked us so hard that the large truck behind us almost hit us. It was really scary, but at this point, it was all on her - she was 100% the bad guy.
I thought it was pretty much over. She had her temper tantrum, we were almost to our exit and our destination was only a couple minutes off of the exit. However, my husband was pissed. He whipped over into the left lane, sped up to get ahead of her (she flipped us off with both hands as we passed), moved over in front of her and brake checked her really hard.
My kids and I knew what he was going to do as soon as he moved over because he tends to have a temper when he's driving. We were screaming at him to stop and I screamed "Don't you dare!", but he did it anyway. Luckily she didn't hit us and the poor truck that was now behind her didn't hit her. She followed us off the exit and drove right on our bumper for a bit, but didn't follow us when we turned off the road.
My kids were both crying and I was pissed. He parked at the store we were going to. My kids got out, but they needed to take a minute to calm down, so he went into the store ahead of us. We were pissed at him the whole time, which just made him angry. He claimed that he was protecting his family. He said she needed to learn a lesson. The kids and I told him that she was in the wrong, but if he really wanted to protect his family, he would have just given her a lot of space after she brake checked us, or went in the left lane and we could have used the next exit. I said she wasn't the type of person to "learn her lesson" just because he got aggressive. He just keeps saying that he was taking care of his family. He truly believes that what he did was protecting us. I told him he's wrong. He was putting us in danger and putting his anger and his desire for revenge above his family's safety - not to mention the financial aspects if she had hit us and someone told the police what my husband did.
I feel like I'm in the right, but he's so adamant that he did the right thing that I'm doubting myself just a little. He spent the rest of the shopping trip pointing out things we need and then saying "I remember because I take care of my family". So, am I the AH for thinking he was putting us in more danger?