When this young sixteen-year-old woman was five years old, her parents went through a divorce. Her mom wound up retaining primary custody, and she spent every weekend with her dad.
Five years ago, her dad also married her stepmother, and they went on to give her two stepsisters. So, even though her dad’s house was not very large to begin with, the added kids made space at his house even more scarce.
“My stepsisters share a room, and whenever I stay, I sleep on the couch in the living room. So, it is not an ideal place to stay all the time,” she noted.
Despite that, she was always committed to following through and keeping up visitation with her father. Well, that was until recently, when her mom’s health started to decline severely.
It all began when her mother was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer. During that time, her mother mainly stayed in the hospital while the doctors tried various treatments.
And since she was still a minor and her mother was not present at home, her grandparents got temporary custody.
But unfortunately, the disease ended up spreading throughout the rest of her mother’s body. Her mom reportedly put up a good fight for a while, but there was just nothing she or her doctors could do.
So, about a month ago, her mother’s medical team decided it would be best if she was placed in home hospice care– and her mother agreed.
Anyway, ever since her mother was put in hospice, she has wanted to spend as much time as she can while her mom is still alive.
mavrik – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
And because of that, her grandparents have not been forcing her to visit her dad since they understand the severity of the situation.
“But, it’s upset my dad that I don’t want to visit him, even though I explained that I just want to spend more time with my mom,” she said.
In fact, just a few days ago, her dad and stepmother actually showed up at her grandparent’s house, claiming that it was wrong of her grandparents to stop encouraging her to visit her father a few times a week.
She is obviously sixteen now, though, and knows that her mother does not have much time left. So, her grandparents told her father that she could make her own decisions and underscored how she has every right to choose to be with her mom more right now.
For whatever reason, though, her dad just did not understand that. Instead, he actually brought up how his visitations were a part of the court agreement.
So, her dad claimed that if she did not start visiting him, he was going to take her grandparents to court.
The idea of dealing with even more drama amidst her mother’s declining health was obviously far from what she wanted, though. So, she told her dad off.
“I said that if my dad made us deal with family court while my mom is in hospice and we are just trying to spend as much time together as possible, I would never forgive him,” she recalled.
Then, right after she said that her stepmother decided to butt into the conversation. But, all her stepmother did was accuse her of being a brat for trying to “guilt trip” her father into letting her off the hook for his visits.
Her stepmother also tried to claim that they “understand” she wants to spend time with her mom, but apparently, that does not mean she can just stop seeing her father.
So, ever since that argument, she has been left feeling pretty torn about the situation. She did not think it was unreasonable to want to spend time with her mother during her final days.
But, at the same time, she is not sure if threatening her dad and saying she would never forgive him if he brought her grandparents to court was the wrong way to handle the situation.
Do you think a court would understand why she is choosing to spend more time with her mother right now? Why do you think her father and stepmother do not really understand that? If you had been in her shoes, would you have said the same thing to your father?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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