I guess no matter where you are in life, you can still fight with your siblings about anything.

Just take this story where two middle aged sisters are arguing about a harmless conversation and what is and is not an okay way to react when you get upset.

They both want an apology. Let’s find out why.

AITA for walking out of my nephew’s birthday brunch because my sister belittled me?

My sister (55) and I (53) are chalk and cheese.

I am the eternal optimist and she is a pessimist, she also lacks empathy and tact so she has few friends and leans on me regularly to complain about life and work.

I usually listen and move on.

And then there was the birthday party.

Last week we were out to brunch with the family for my nephew’s (adult) birthday.

I was excited to be there to tell them about my planning for our trip to Disneyland which is currently a secret from our child and for once she wasn’t with me so I could talk openly about it.

I had already mentioned it to one end of the table and then moved to the other end to tell my parents, my sister was sitting in the middle so sure she heard it twice.

I was talking about some of the minor things and no one was talking to my sister so she turned to join our conversation and immediately started to make out like I was ‘going on’.

She didn’t deny it.

I replied that sure I might have been going on a little at the moment but this is my thing right now and I’m enjoying it.

(My dad has dementia so he wouldn’t have cared if I was going on anyway he just likes someone talking to him).

But sister very loudly said ‘but your thing is BORING everyone else’.

She blames what happens next partly on what she’d been drinking.

Now normally I would let this slide but I had had caffeine and then a Bloody Mary (holiday brunch treat) and I saw red!

On a side note I had just that morning spent 15mins on the phone with her listening to her go on about her work and the problem people she had there.

So all of a sudden I had a chemical mix of caffeine, alcohol and a heavy hit of adrenaline and so in order to not make a scene in a public place I walked outside.

Outside I realized that I was crying, really angry and shaking and there was no way I could go back in and sit quietly.

She made a quick decision.

I decided to go back in and get my husband and leave.

As I was walking back in she came out and try to stop me and I said no!

She tried again and I held up my hand and said NO!

I went back in got my very confused husband, said goodbye to my nephew and left.

Mom to the rescue?

My mum of course rang me later to see what happened and I told her.

My sister had not mentioned to the table what she said but she did ask my mum to tell me she was sorry.

I eventually settled down and left it overnight (no call or text from my sister).

Her sister sent her a text.

She texted me this morning and said

“I don’t know if you heard my apology yesterday I am sorry for upsetting you. I am concerned about the level of anger you demonstrated. I am here to talk if you want to.”

Sorry not sorry?

To be honest I’m still really [angry].

1. That’s not an apology and

2. I don’t have anger issues and I feel like she is deflecting.

So I haven’t replied.

My question is AITA in this scenario?

It was probably wise for her to leave since she realized she couldn’t control her emotions.

Let’s see what the comments on Reddit have to say:

A lot of people didn’t have much sympathy:

Though some did see her side:

But there’s clearly something deeper at play here:

This is obviously a LONG standing problem.

Some folks were just blunt:

I think they both have some things to figure out.

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.