When your mother gets remarried to someone who has a child about your age, it can cause some awkwardness, especially if you don’t get along.

What would you do if your new step-brother was constantly growling, breaking things, and causing drama in the house?

That is what happened to the young lady in this story, and she isn’t sure if she is out of line for being so frustrated with her step-brother.

AITA for being frustrated with my stepsibling’s behavior?

For some background: My mother met her current husband when he traveled to asia for a business trip. They exchanged phone numbers and talked very sparingly for the next few decades.

They have been acquaintances for quite some time.

My mother moved to the states a few years later for school and has stayed there since. Around 2021, my mother left her ex-husband, and her current husband (who I’ll call J) divorced his wife.

J was passing through the state that my mother was living in and remembered that she said she was living there.

And finally, they started dating.

They decided to meet up and catch up. They soon found out that they really liked each other and decided to get together.

Fast forward to this summer, they got married. In 2023, I got to know his kids. Two of them are adults now and one of his children will be eighteen next year. It’s his youngest that I have a problem with.

Being so close in age can make things hard in this situation.

The youngest child K, and I are very close in age, only a year apart with them being older. Over these path’s few months, it has only become more and more difficult living with K.

One thing that bothers me about K is the constant growling from them.

No, I’ve never had a sibling growl at me.

I’m sure any of you with siblings or bad temperaments before experienced this. This really wouldn’t be a problem, if wasn’t on a constant basis.

It doesn’t matter if K accidentally dropped some papers or if their phone buffers for a moment, they’ll growl LOUDLY.

He sounds kind of weird.

It ranges from everything between from extremely frustrating to the most slightly inconvenient things that could be fixed in three seconds.

At first, I ignored it. I used to do this as well, but I’ve learned to control it over the years.

Yeah, this is an issue for the father to address.

My mother also found it quite frustrating, but she didn’t want to make J feel like she was trying to parent his almost 17 year old kid.

But over time, it has really gotten on her nerves. She started asking K in private if she could stop because it was making her a little frustrated hearing it.

Wow, he is even doing it at night?

It really makes it difficult to sleep when I can hear this growling from upstairs when I’m trying to sleep. And it not just that too.

K is constantly breaking or pushing/dropping/ things. Whenever they do the dishes, I can hear dishes smashing together and the growling.

What does painting have to do with a mirror breaking?

A few months ago, K broke the large mirror in their room and glass went everywhere. The consequence? They couldn’t paint their room. That’s it.

I make tea in the mornings, so I go to the kitchen that’s next to K’s room.

Perhaps this is a psychological issue?

Every single morning, I hear K growling, screaming, and smacking either their computer or drawing tablet. (K has gotten SO many drawing tablets over the years, and they break every single one of them. NICE EXPENSIVE drawing tablets. And they have the audacity to complain that their siblings get more things than them)

Mom and Dad need to get on the same page.

Over the past few weeks, my mother has approached J with her feelings. And they’ve gotten into arguments over it.

My mother and J have never fought about anything at his point, until she brought up K’s behavior.

He is feeling attacked.

J argues that my mother is insulting his parenting. She has come to my room in near tears and just sat there asking what she’s doing wrong. My mother doesn’t want to parent K, but it has gotten really difficult.

There’s also the problem where K just won’t eat my mother’s cooking.

This I understand, not everyone likes Asian food.

I grew up in an asian household, so most of the food is asian food. K is a picky eater as is J’s family.

So, my mother has tweaked her cooking into something more American. She is constantly asking what others want to eat so she can make something they’ll eat.

Ok, now he is just being mean.

One night my mother cooked spaghetti for dinner because that’s what K said they wanted to eat. But when dinner rolled around, they grabbed a tin of spaghettios and left.

My mother gave up after this, and decided that if K won’t eat her food, then she’ll stop trying to cook food they’ll like.

He is very rude.

One time J asked K why they won’t eat my mother’s cooking, and they tried to say something about how disgusting and gross it was before they cut themselves off because my mother walked into the room.

This is another thing she came to my room in near tears once.

His son is causing a lot of problems.

Another incident happened today between my mom, K, and J. One I wasn’t there for, but was told about. My mother came up to my room and just sat there.

She told me that if she were to ever divorce J it wouldn’t be because they argued over something related to finance or because the disagreed over something; it would be because of K.

Hopefully, these two can get through this. K will grow up eventually.

We talked a little bit more, but that’s pretty much it. Before any of you say that J sounds like a bad person, he’s not. He really loves my mother, he is very smitten and it’s very obvious. He treats my mother very well, at least that I know of.

In this context alone, you don’t really get to know what he’s really like. My mother really loves him, and I don’t wish to see them fall out of love because of rising tension.

K needs to get into counseling, it sounds like.

I’m just really conflicted with my feelings about this situation. K is going to be an adult soon, and I feel like they aren’t going to be able to function in society.

However, with how everyone else (excluding my mom) is treating the situation, I just can’t feel like that my thoughts are invalid.

Clearly, this young lady is not a bad person.

So please, I need to know if I’m just a bad person for feeling this way and if it’s just something everyone has to go through.

If there is missing context or something doesn’t make sense, I’ll answer your question in the comments.

Blended families seem perfect in TV and movies, but in real life, there is a lot more drama and difficulty.

Let’s read some of the comments to see if other people have any helpful advice.

Here is some practical advice.

The kid just needs to grow up.

I mean, this is one option.

They are in a very hard situation.

He needs professional help.

Siblings can be so annoying.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.