Managing complicated family dynamics can feel like walking a tightrope with no safety net.

So when one woman’s sister tried to violate a custody agreement to see her kids, she felt forced to step in to protect her nieces.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for preventing my sister from seeing her kids

I (28F) live in my grandparents’ house (mom’s side) while they snowbird and travel.

My other grandparents (dad’s side) live on the East Coast.

My mom and sister live on the West Coast.

A little over a year ago, my sister lost custody of her 3 kids.

They spent a few months separated in foster care before my mom finally got custody last fall.

My sister is not allowed to see her kids unless it is a CPS-supervised visit.

I haven’t seen my nieces in about 4 years.

So recently, the family planned a trip to get back together.

Now my daughter is traveling to the East Coast beginning of July to see that side of the family, and they’re all driving back at the end of July and staying with me for a couple weeks.

My mom is trying to plan a visit also for the end of July so the East Coast fam can also see the girls, since they haven’t seen them in about 4 years as well.

But before my mom can get plane tickets, she needs CPS approval.

But soon her sister wanted to join in, which caused a world of trouble.

My sister got word of these plans and is trying to convince the East Coast fam to pay for her plane ticket so she can sneakily see her kids.

But if CPS finds out my sis had any unsupervised visit, my mom will lose custody.

So when she intervened, her sister was irate with her.

So I had to call the East Coast fam to shut that stuff down.

Now my sister is going crazy, blaming me for the reason she can’t see her kids.

And my grandfather (who owns the house I’m living in) is also calling to yell about how my sister is not allowed in his house.

So, AITA for stopping my sister’s plans and preventing her from seeing her kids?

Sounds like she’s in quite a tough position here.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter doesn’t think she’s wrong for wanting to follow the rules.

It’s time for her sister to take a cold, hard look in the mirror.

These kids’ fate will be far worse if her family doesn’t go about this the right way.

It’s important to start leaving a paper trail.

Maybe it wasn’t her place to intervene, but the cost of staying silent was just too high.

She may be the bad guy in her sister’s eyes, but at least her nieces are safe.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.