Even within one society or culture, each child has a very different upbringing.

This can even be the case for siblings, with older siblings often having a completely different experience of childhood than their younger brothers and sisters.

But when you live in a household with strict rules, it can be hard not to compare with friends whose parents are more liberal, who seem to be able to do whatever they want while your freedom is squandered by seemingly arbitrary terms.

The woman in this story has just moved into her first home, leaving behind the rules of a strict family.

But just as she starts enjoying her freedom, her sister calls.

Read on to find out what happened, and how her freedom was suddenly threatened.

AITA for refusing to let my sister move in with me?

I am a 24-year-old woman, and have a sister who is eighteen.

She currently lives with our parents and attends a local community college, and plans to attend for a couple years.

I moved out into my own apartment after I finished university.

Let’s find out where this drama started.

Now my parents are religious Christians, and they had some pretty strict rules for us to follow in their house as long as we lived there.

I didn’t need to follow them once I moved out, but my sister still has to as she lives there.

The rules are as follows:

1. She has to go to church every Sunday with them
2. She has to dress modestly. No mini skirts, crop tops, or short shorts. No tight pants, etc.
3. No heavy jewelry/makeup
4. No boyfriends overnight. She can bring them in during the day, but not at night.

Now my sister thinks that, because she’s eighteen, she should be able to do whatever she wants.

Uh-oh. Read on to find out how this caused problems between the sisters.

Because she still lives at my parents house, she still has to follow their rules.

She called me and asked me if I could take her in for a few months until she gets a good part time job.

She said the rules were really annoying and she didn’t want to dress modestly or go to church, as it was “oppressive” and she was being discriminated against.

I don’t really want her to live with me.

I just got my own place after finishing university and it’s pretty small, so I don’t want someone else with me, at least for now.

I also don’t want to have to spend money on her and she doesn’t make her own money at the moment, although she says she plans to.

Let’s see how the older sister responded.

I told her that until she can find her own place she should just follow the rules.

My parents don’t abuse or mistreat her, she doesn’t have to pay rent, and they are paying for her higher education.

I don’t think she is going to be traumatized by having to go to church and dress modestly.

I told her that and she got really mad and told me I was “dismissing her concerns” and siding with my parents.

I asked her if our parents were doing anything else besides these rules she said no. I then just told her to deal with it.

She’s still upset.

AITA?

It seems like this sister has been put in a really tough situation.

To have only really just gained her own independence, and be living in her own place for the first time, it’s very understandable that she doesn’t want to give that up – especially if it means financially supporting her sister and potentially creating a difficult relationship with her parents.

But it does sound like the rules are affecting the younger sister too, in a way that perhaps they didn’t affect the older sibling.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit thought about this.

Many Redditors reassured the woman that she wasn’t wrong to deny her sister.

While this person reminded her that she is her sibling, not her parent.

Meanwhile, others reassured her from a place of experience.

It must be frustrating for the younger sister to see her older sibling living her own life, with all the freedom that independent adult life affords, and without the strict parental rules she still has to abide by.

But unfortunately, though she might empathize, this isn’t her sister’s responsibility to bear.

After all, she is her sister, not her mother.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.