Imagine growing up in a family with your mom, dad, siblings and and older half sister from your dad’s previous relationship. If the half sister never thought of the rest of you as her real family and preferred her biological mom, would you be okay with that, or would you agree with your parents that she’s making a bad decision?

In this story, one teenage boy grew up in a family just like that, and he thinks his parents need to stop being so obsessed about his half sister’s life choices.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for saying my parents need some help to accept my half sister choosing her mom over us?

My parents met when my half sister was 2.

My dad and half sister’s mom were not together and dad had primary custody of my half sister at the time.

Her mom was in prison for something. She got out when my half sister was 3 and got visitation and then some custody. But she was flaky and inconsistent.

My parents got married and had me (17m), my sister (15f) and brother (13m) after a few years.

It makes sense that the half sister preferred her biological mom.

I remember my half sister always being willing to drop us if her mom showed up.

She’d turn mom down for stuff because she was hoping her mom would do it instead.

Sometimes she’d agree to stuff with mom and if her mom was like yeah I’ll come she told mom not to go with her and she wanted her real mom to be there.

It would’ve been nice if the half sister’s mom didn’t makes plans with her at the last minute.

My parents had my half sister in therapy, they talked to her about respecting plans and not playing with people.

But she never cared if she hurt our feelings.

There was a time she literally ran out of my birthday dinner because her mom texted to meet her and dad chased her down but she kept going.

She said she was going to spend time with her mom regardless of what anyone else wanted and when he asked about me she said I wasn’t her real brother anyway.

His half sister clearly never thought of her stepmom and half siblings as family.

When my half sister turned 18 she went to live with her mom and they bounced around for a year before my half sister got her own place.

Then she moved her mom in and let her mom live there whenever she wanted.

She really didn’t show up to anything with our family once she left but after that it was even less. She answered calls less often too.

Then she got married at 21 and her mom was there.

My parents feelings were so hurt and my sister’s feelings were too because her only sister got married and didn’t want her there.

The half sister clearly doesn’t want them involved in her life.

Contact went up a little a while after the wedding but we only saw her once and she didn’t bring her husband with her.

Then my parents became more upset when they learned my half sister had a baby and didn’t tell any of us she was pregnant.

My dad called and tried to set up a chance for us to see each other and meet the baby but she had excuses and then told him she was giving her mom lots of time with the baby.

No matter what they think, it isn’t all that surprising that the half sister feels closer to her mom than her half siblings and stepmom. It’s her mom.

My parents became super obsessed with her socials after that and were sad every time she shared something about her mom with her baby. But there was a lot of times it wasn’t photos and was just stuff she’d write and she’d talk about how those infrequent visits were amazing.

Then she showed up to my dad’s job and brought her kid so he could meet his grandchild but said no to letting my mom or any of us join to meet the baby.

So we still never met the baby and I’m not bothered.

My sister is but my parents most of all. They are so upset that she’d choose an inconsistent mom who’s been to prison over a family who were there and stable throughout her childhood.

He made a good point.

My parents discussed it in front of me the other weekend when my siblings weren’t home so I brought up how I thought they should get some help to accept things. I said they’re so distracted by her choices that it’s spilling into them being here for us and we’re all still here.

They were surprised but said they’d talk about it and then my grandma asked me why I tried to shame them.

My parents said they had never said that and all they did was ask if she’d noticed.

Grandma was kind of rude.

She was saying I wouldn’t understand because I’m not a parent but they don’t need help to accept anything because they’re allowed to be hurt and struggle with the fact one of their children is choosing a flake over them and bringing their grandchildren up to do the same.

Which then brought up that my half sister is pregnant again, I guess. Who the heck knows anymore.

Grandma got kicked out for what she said and my parents apologized. But am I too harsh on them?

AITA?

He didn’t do anything wrong. His dad and stepmom need to accept that his half sister has chosen to go low contact and feels closer to her mom. They need to focus on the other kids who are still there.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

He did the right thing.

The parents would probably benefit from therapy.

It really is ironic.

A mom shares what she learned.

His parents need to rethink their priorities.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.