In blended families, building connections is rarely as straightforward as eager parents expect.

When one teen decides to prioritize his biological brother over his step siblings, it led to a family rift that hit closer to home than he expected.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for not making my schedule work so my youngest stepsister could go to a party?

My mom passed when I (17m) was 7. My brother was 6.

When we were 10 and 11 our dad remarried.

My dad’s wife came with three daughters.

Her youngest is a halfsister to the two older ones.

The older two are 16 and 14. Her youngest is 9.

My dad and his wife also have a 4 and a 2-year-old together.

The timeline was a bit muddy, leading to further tensions.

One thing I should mention is my dad’s wife lost her first husband, the dad of the older two.

Her youngest was conceived not long after her husband’s passing.

The dad of her youngest didn’t want to know.

The girls never forgave her or got over her moving on so fast, and they hate my youngest stepsister.

The teen feels a lot closer to his biological brother than any of his half-siblings.

My brother and I don’t hate anyone.

But, being honest, I see him differently from the steps and halfsiblings. I love my brother.

I’d say he’s my real sibling, while the others are steps and halfs.

I guess I’d say I’m mostly indifferent to them.

While the teen has a favorite, he’s not outwardly mean, unlike his older step-siblings.

I don’t dislike them, but I don’t have their back always like I do for him.

He’s pretty much the same.

The older steps don’t like any of the rest of us and are hostile. The youngest step really wants her older sisters to love her.

She doesn’t really notice the rest of us.

But it’s very easy to see it breaks her heart when the other two want nothing to do with her and treat her like she’s disgusting.

The youngest two are really little but will play together.

This isn’t the family dynamic the parents pictured at all.

My dad and his wife had this dream that we’d be a way closer family unit and that we’d be more like an actual family than we are.

His father tries to get him to warm up to his other stepsiblings, but he tells his dad he doesn’t want that.

Dad has talked to me about being the person who brings us all together as the oldest in the family.

He told me I have such a good relationship with my brother, and he wants us to have the same with the others.

He asked me like a year ago if I didn’t want that, and I said no.

That made him interact with me differently.

Which all led up to the inciting incident of their latest conflict.

This all brings us to yesterday.

Youngest stepsister was supposed to be going to a birthday party.

Dad was already at work, and his wife was really sick.

I had work too, but in the past, I called and said I’d be late to do something for my brother.

My boss is cool with stuff like that.

Once again, the mean older step-sister is evading responsibility left and right.

Oldest stepsister was going to a friend’s house and was passing the house the party was at.

But she refused to take youngest stepsister.

She left while her mom was trying to get her to take her.

Middle stepsister also refused and left the house as well.

My brother wasn’t home, and I left for work while dad’s wife was comforting youngest stepsister, who was upset my other stepsisters wouldn’t take her.

So that leaves everything on the teen’s shoulders.

When I got home last night, dad called me an AH and told me I could have taken her.

He said if she were my brother, I would have called to be late to work and taken him.

According to his dad, he should have picked up the slack.

He told me I had the chance to really reach out and create a bond between me and her, and I didn’t.

I showed him that I will always have a favorite and never try to hide it.

He said he’s sick of the two of us sticking by each other but not doing the same for the others.

AITA?

This family is weathering quite the storm of divided loyalties.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter calls it like they see it: A mess of the parents’ making.

There are certain people in the story this reader feels bad for, and certain people they don’t.

This redditor wonders what the parents are thinking putting such a complex request on their children.

While it’s not what he wants, he does have a choice to make his youngest half sister’s life a lot better.

The dad in this story needs to wake up from his fantasy and realize relationships don’t always fit neatly into a master plan – at least not without some real effort on his part.

Family bonds may grow over time, but they sure can’t be forced.

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.