Along with all the joys they bring, kids come with a whole host of complications too.

And sometimes, this can include tension building in the family as a result of the kid’s behavior.

In this story, a little girl is excited to play with her cousins. But when things go wrong, the girl’s parents refuse to do anything about it – leaving their teenage daughter to pick up the pieces.

Read on to find out what happened between the younger children, and why the parents refused to get involved.

AITA for telling my sister she doesn’t have to play with our cousins?

I (17, female) have a younger sister who is seven years old. I love her dearly.

We had very different childhoods—I didn’t get to play with kids my age growing up because I lived alone with my parents.

But when my sister was three, we moved to a family compound where she had cousins her age to play with all the time.

This, however, was not always a good thing.

Two of those cousins, Rich (9) and Adam (6), have always rubbed me the wrong way.

When they first met my sister, she was excited to have playmates, but they immediately started excluding her from their games, teasing her, and even badmouthing her.

Adam, in particular, would make comments about how our house “wasn’t really ours” because they had lived there first (which is somewhat true, but still an unnecessary thing to say to a young kid).

My sister, being the sweet person she is, always forgives them, but I’ve struggled to do the same.

Let’s see how the situation progressed.

Now, a few years later, my feelings haven’t changed much.

Rich has gotten better, but Adam is still mean to my sister.

He dismisses her whenever she tries to talk, saying things like, “Blah blah blah, I don’t care,” and still tries to keep her out of their games, even when Rich includes her.

Yikes! Read on to find out how this big sister responded to the boys’ behavior.

My parents tell me to ignore it because “they’re just kids,” but even my dad lost his patience with them at one point.

I also don’t understand why their parents keep having more kids (they have four now) when they seem to struggle with disciplining the ones they already have.

Because of all this, I’ve started telling my sister that she doesn’t have to play with them and encouraging her to find other playmates or do things on her own.

I don’t stop her if she insists, but I make it clear that she doesn’t have to keep putting up with them.

But according to the adults, sticking up for her little sister was the wrong thing to do.

The issue is that my parents think I’m being unfair and that I should stop interfering.

They believe that kids will be kids and that my sister should keep playing with them anyway.

They say I’m the one making a big deal out of it in telling her she doesn’t have to play with them.

AITA?

There’s a difference between allowing kids to be kids, and teaching a young girl to tolerate mistreatment.

It’s worrying that the parents have no problem with their daughter being treated this way.

She’s lucky to have a big sister who is capable of teaching her about boundaries.

Let’s see what Reddit thought about this.

This person agreed that the little girl was being taught all the wrong lessons.

While this commenter supported the older sister, giving a mother’s perspective.

And this Redditor suggested firmer action.

She’s just being a good sister.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.