Family loyalty can be important: you’ve got their backs and you know that they’ve got yours too.

But sometimes this can be toxic. What happens when family really don’t have your back, and are instead threatening and harassing you?

Do you call the police? Or do you just hope that the family member will calm down and everything will work itself out in the end?

In this story, one mom and her parents have opposite ideas about this, and it’s causing disharmony in the family and threatening the safety of a child too.

Read on to find out exactly what happened.

WIBTA for keeping my toddler from her grandparents because they refuse to take action against my uncle?

Me and my husband have a two and a half year old child. We both work full time and one day a week my toddler goes to my parents, the rest of the time she is in child care. This has been going on for over two years, and my toddler has a great relationship with my parents.

Fifteen years ago my grandmother died and there was some contention about the will. At the time, my uncles were basically all trying to sue each other for anything possible. Over the years the estate has basically been worn down to nothing due to legal fees.

One uncle has acted especially crazy during this time: writing and hand delivering threatening letters, stalking the rest of the family at Christmas, and at one point slamming open my front door and screaming at me. Most of this behavior has been directed at my parents and one other of my uncles.

Over the years I have encouraged my parents to report these incidences to the police and they have refused (it costs nothing to make a police report). These behaviors often ebb and flow around court dates or anniversaries, sometimes there is no contact for months and some weeks will be everyday.

Uh-oh. Let’s find out what happened next.

Recently as a court date is coming up, the uncle’s behavior has escalated. He is often sleeping in his car outside houses, has been screaming at my parents front door, and was poking around up on pot plants at my uncles house as well as contacting my ex husband.

I am worried that he has become unhinged as his behavior is escalating and he has no one and nothing left. I have done the research into what needs to be done including talking to the police to try to protect myself and my family.

The police told me that based on his behavior my parents could take out a personal protection order (PPO) against him, all they would need is police reports or evidence of this behavior.

Read on to find out how the situation developed.

I have installed ring doorbells at my parents place to start to gather video evidence, I already have one at mine. I have sent my parents information to get an PPO against my uncle and information about trespassing.

I sat down with them and asked them to make police reports for any future events. My father refused and said he doesn’t want to – no reason given. And my mother expressed that she didn’t want to spend the money to serve him with the PPO if granted (less than $200). I

said I don’t want my child at their place until something is in place to protect them. My dad responded that I better put my child in for an extra day of care and I walked out.

I am now fully intending to either wear the cost of the extra day of care or use leave to cover the extra day until either a PPO is in place, which may take months or years if they continue with their inaction. Other people have told me I am overreacting.

AITA?

Wow. It has been fifteen whole years and the uncle is still acting this way?

This woman is right, his behavior is scary. It’s no wonder she doesn’t want her child to be nearby while this is all going on.

Let’s see what the community on Reddit though about this.

This person agreed with the mother’s assessment of the situation.

While others agreed that the mother is doing the right thing to protect her child.

And some encouraged her to take action herself.

While death and wills can be hard things to navigate, the safety of the living is surely the most important thing.

Not only is this mom doing the right thing to protect her child, she is also trying to protect her parents too.

This uncle needs help.

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.