Imagine having a sibling who is only one year younger than you. Would you be annoyed if they wanted to do everything you’re doing no matter what?

In this story, one teenage boy has a sister who insists on doing everything he does and going everywhere he goes.

Now, he’s wondering if it’s selfish of him to want to join a club without her.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH for being okay with hurting my sister’s feelings because it means I get to have stuff that doesn’t involve her?

My parents are really focused on this idea that we need to be a really close family who like sharing everything with each other. They say we need to do this because we don’t have a lot and so supporting each other is the most important thing.

When I say we don’t have a lot I mean me (16m) and my sister (15f) share a room. We have a room divider for some privacy. But our house only has two bedrooms so we always had to share.

And even without sharing a room we do family time 3-4 times a week which means no friends or anything those days.

We’ve always been encouraged to share friends and my sister always brings her friends around my friends and wants to hang out as one big group so the two of us hang out more.

His sister seems to want to do everything he does.

When I started doing free swim lessons my sister wanted them too.

When I joined a coding club at school my sister joined even though she hates coding and was bad at it. She always sat next to me and partnered us when we did the club.

If I wanted to stay in and relax all day she’d stay in with me.

My parents always encouraged it and praised her for sticking by me. They used to say I should ask my sister if she wanted us to do something.

Now, the friends are making it even more complicated.

I asked my sister for space before and she ignored me.

I asked my parents to help me get some space and they told me no. Nothing else, just no.

Eventually my sister started intruding more with my friends, and some of my friends started ignoring me because they started liking her and acting like they were her friends and I was tagging along.

And my sister’s friends would flirt with me and her best friend really wanted us to date so they could be sisters. It was a whole thing and my sister really wanted it too.

He finally has one thing his sister isn’t a part of.

I made some new friends recently. They’re gamers like me and we have this gaming club sorta. It’s not official or fancy but they let me join even though I can’t host or anything.

They said no to my sister joining or being a part of it.

My parents hated it and tried to stop me from going if my sister wasn’t welcome so I told them I would start refusing family time if they didn’t let me have this one thing that’s separate from her.

They were shocked and said family time’s important.

He talked them into letting him join the gaming club without his sister.

I said it’s suffocating to have it 3-4 times a week when I don’t get time where my sister isn’t like my shadow.

My parents said when people have so little it’s important for family to be close.

I said I feel close to none of them, I just feel buried under them and like I can’t ever get out from there.

They were like fine, but know your sister will be hurt. And she was.

He’s not going to cave over a few tears.

They thought they got me when she cried and asked why I hated her but it was worth it to me.

I said I just needed time and she needs to focus on her friends without me there.

My parents think I’m some kinda psycho because I didn’t care.

But the only way for me to get space is to hurt her feelings so I think it’s worth it. I’m okay with her feelings being hurt for this. Does that make me a jerk?

His sister sounds very attached to him, and that’s sweet. But I can definitely see how that would be suffocating as well. I think it’s healthy for him to do something that’s just his thing and doesn’t involve his sister.

She’s a jerk for not understanding that.

Let’s see how Reddit felt about this story.

This person thinks he did the right thing.

Another person points out that his sister needs to learn to be more independent.

The parents are the real problem.

Here’s another suggestion about how to get away from his sister.

You shouldn’t have to spend ALL of your time with your siblings.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.