This young girl is just seventeen-years-old. But, from an early age, her parents always viewed her as a third adult in the house and expected her to care for her younger sister.
Her sister is only three years younger than her and does not have any developmental or behavioral disabilities. But, apparently, that was the dynamic that was set up in her household.
For example, every day after school, she would have to feed and watch her sister while her mother ran in and out of the house. Then, whenever her sister was upset, she was ordered to play with her.
“She would miss me a lot, and my parents would insist I dedicate my time to her once I was home,” she recalled.
“And when we would go out as a family, and she wanted something, they would get it for her. But I would be told to act my age if I wanted something.”
On top of that, her sister was allowed to hang out with her friends as much as she wanted. Her sister would also be allowed to go to sleepovers and get these amazing birthday parties– none of which she was ever given.
In fact, there were even times during her childhood when her parents would take only her sister to go on these fun and experiential outings. And in the meantime, she was left at home.
So, over time, she started to resent both her parents and her sister. Then, at age fifteen, she began to withdraw from them.
“I kept to myself, I didn’t engage in the ‘family,’ I took punishments rather than do chores since none were assigned to my sister. And my parents hated that I wouldn’t be the little housekeeper they wanted,” she explained.
morrowlight – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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Her sister even started making comments about her behavior too. For instance, her sister called her an ungrateful brat for not helping out their parents.
Still, that did not stop her from pulling back from the family, which only made her family’s comments worse over time.
Just recently, though, her sister overheard her making plans to move out with her friends in a few months and totally freaked out.
Apparently, her sister was super pissed off that she did not mention any of the plans. Then, her sister claimed that their parents had saved for both of them to go to college and accused her of just running away.
Her sister did not know that their parents never had the same future plans for her, though. So, after hearing the college comment, something inside of her “broke,” and she totally let loose on her sister.
“I told her that SHE has a college fund waiting for her, but I don’t. Just like SHE can get anything she wants while I am told to act my age and not want anything. I told her she expects me to be a maid when I get nothing, and she gets everything,” she vented.
She also pointed out how she is not much older than her sister. Then, she asked her sister how she would feel if she was constantly expected to juggle a younger sibling, take care of most of the household chores, keep up with schoolwork, and never have time to socialize with friends.
And finally, she told her sister to consider how exhausted she must feel after working for everything she has on top of all of her other responsibilities.
“I told her that’s my life and that she does not make me want to stay any more than our parents do.” Yikes.
All of this did not really get through to her sister, though. Instead, her sister just got super upset and has been calling her a jerk for being so mean.
On top of that, she has been accused of unfairly dumping all of that trauma onto her sister’s shoulders.
So now, she has been left feeling really confused. She genuinely felt like it was time to tell her sister the truth. But she is not sure if she went about it the right way.
Have you ever been treated less than compared to other siblings in your family? Do you think it was only natural for her to build up resentment? Did she have a right to finally tell her sister the truth– and, if so, did she handle the situation the right way?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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