Bullies suck. They can make your school life a misery.
But you know what is worse than bullies at school?
Bullies at home. And the sisters in this story have witnessed enough bullying from their close and extended family to last them a lifetime.
So why were their family surprised when they began to distance themselves?
Read on to find out what happened.
AITA for telling my parents and my extended family that my sister is none of their concern anymore? My parents named me (20, female) Seraphina because apparently it was my mom’s favorite name ever, and once they had me named they were happy. When my sister (18, female) was born they picked the top name of that year which was Emily. Not as much thought went into it really. But they figured safe was better than nothing. Extended family loved my name and showered a ton of praise on it my whole childhood, and would often make snide comments about Emily’s name and how it was a shame her name was nothing compared to mine. Some would even ask our parents how come they ran out of really beautiful names after just me, and mom and dad would sit and laugh it off. All of this was happening when Emily could hear.
But the name-based discrepancies didn’t stop there.
Often praise around my name came with praise for how pretty I was and how my name suited me that way. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl and all of that. She never got that kind of praise or positive attention at all. I would tell them to stop bringing it up around Emily, but I was ignored. I’d tell her that her name was pretty too and that she shouldn’t listen to our family. It chipped away at her confidence, at her self esteem. When I turned eighteen and moved out, I made sure Em had a safe space with me. It helped but she still felt unsupported and like the family didn’t like her very much.
Let’s see what happened when Emily became an adult.
When she turned 18 a couple of months ago she moved in with me and cut ties with our family. I have helped her find a therapist and have reminded her every day that she is important and loved and that our family were awful for always overlooking her and tearing her down to lift me up in her presence. It was only a week ago our extended family invited us to a family wedding. Em didn’t want to go and neither did I so I RSVP’d no.
But that decision came with problems of its own.
This led to contact from a few of them saying Em is always at these things and I should stop hiding her from them. I told them Em is none of their concern anymore and to leave us alone. They told me Em is their daughter/granddaughter/niece and that I have no right to say she’s none of their concern, she will always be their concern. I told them they had eighteen years to value her and they tore her down and ignored me when I said what they were saying and allowing others to say was mean. They accused me of causing trouble because of what I said.
It seems like these two sisters grew up with some nasty people around them, and it’s good that they have one another.
For the older sister, it would have been easy to just lap up the attention and leave her sister on the sidelines but she refused to do that, even trying to get them to stop.
That’s a great responsibility for a child, and no doubt is the reason that her sister wants nothing to do with any family but her.
Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.
This person praised the big sister for protecting her younger sibling.
While others thought the name-based bullying was very weird.
Meanwhile, this Redditor agreed that both sisters have the right, as adults, to cut their family out.
No kind of bullying is acceptable, and this is the worst kind of bullying since it’s literally about something that Emily has zero control over.
The fact that the wider family have been bullying her for eighteen years and now expect her to respond to their every whim really shows them for who they are.
No wonder she wants nothing to do with them.
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.…Read more by Kyra Piperides