Imagine being raised by your grandparents after your parents decide they don’t want to raise you. Would you still think of your parents as your parents, or would you think of your grandparents as your parents?

In this story, one teenage boy was raised this way, and he calls his grandparents mom and dad. The problem is that years later his biological parents had more kids and want him to think of them as his siblings.

He doesn’t see them that way at all.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for telling my biological parents to treat me like their new kids’ uncle who they only see at family gatherings?

I (17M) have been raised since birth by my maternal grandparents. Grandma and grandpa are mom and dad to me and that’s what I call them. I’ll call them that here. I’ll call my bio mother Elsie and my bio father Johnny.

Elsie and Johnny had me when they were 24 and 27. They told my mom and dad right before I was born that they weren’t ready to be parents and Elsie asked if they’d raise me.

My mom and dad agreed and they got custody of me after I was born and raised me as theirs with the understanding of who my bio parents were and why I was so much younger than my siblings (or aunts and uncles biologically).

I didn’t have a relationship with any paternal side. So it was just my maternal family in my life.

I’m so glad his grandparents were there to raise him. They sound like great people.

I didn’t see my bio parents growing up. They called my mom and dad occasionally but the relationship they had was incredibly strained and the calls stopped after a bunch of years.

My mom found it difficult to come to terms with the lack of care Elsie and Johnny had for me. They never asked how I was doing and I know mom couldn’t understand that.

My dad’s attitude was always more of a “it’s their loss” and he told me repeatedly what a great kid I was and how I was the best son-grandson-son he could’ve ever had.

He decided not to go to his bio parents’ wedding.

When I was 14 my bio parents got married and they invited everyone in the family, including me.

My parents chose not to go because I didn’t want to go. I think they only would’ve gone if I wanted to be there.

But I feel nothing for Elsie or Johnny. In my eyes Elsie’s the sister I never knew and that’s fine by me.

His bio parents had big news.

Some of my siblings did go to the wedding and they told us Elsie was pregnant.

That was actually the first time I ever saw my mom so angry. She was furious that they had invited me and would have sprung that on me at the wedding.

Her momma bear came out that day.

I didn’t care but I told my parents I didn’t want to get in the way of them knowing the newest grandchild if they wanted to try and work on the relationship with Elsie and Johnny.

Elsie seemed to expect a lot.

My parents decided to open up a small amount of contact with Elsie and Johnny again but they shut that for a while because Elsie wanted mom to visit and stay with her for the birth and everything and she expected her to leave me behind for at least a month.

They did start talking again after another year and Elsie was pregnant again and then she had another kid since.

Apparently they wanted more but Elsie’s age and her complicated pregnancies got in the way.

He doesn’t consider his new bio siblings to be siblings.

Elsie, Johnny and their kids are included a bit more in the wider family. I’ve seen them a coupe of times. But I don’t hang out with them.

The last time was a couple of weeks ago and they told me we needed to talk and figure out my relationship with their kids and what we should tell them.

I rolled my eyes at the we part. Then I told them there was no we in that but they should treat me like their kids’ uncle who they only see at family gatherings.

They looked shocked by that and Johnny said they thought I’d want to be a brother.

He explained his reasoning.

I told them I already am, the baby brother, but still the brother. I said I wasn’t interested in them or their kids and that none of them are my actual family.

They said my expectations are unrealistic and I’m the brother not the uncle.

I said my parents are the people who raised me, Elsie is their daughter, making us siblings. I said they were no mom or dad to me and should keep at that.

His parents (grandparents) stood up for him.

They got really annoyed by my response and they said I was not only unrealistic but I should be a part of what their kids know.

I ignored them so they started calling to yell at my parents and my parents went off on them. They said they handle it how they did. Be honest but treat it exactly as I explained because that’s the reality that they (Elsie and Johnny) established.

It’s caused way more of a reaction than I expected. AITA for it?

His biological parents can’t decide to let their child be raised by his grandparents, disappear from his life completely and yet expect him to still consider himself their child and their kids his siblings. The grandparents are right. The biological parents brought this on themselves when they decided not to raise their child.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks his logic makes sense about being the uncle and not the sibling.

I agree that his parents were too old to say they weren’t old enough for a child.

This is probably the truth.

He shouldn’t feel bad. He did nothing wrong.

His biological parents got exactly what they asked for.

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.