The eldest daughter role is an infamously difficult one, especially in times of crisis.

So when one teenage girl’s mother got sick, her responsibilities quickly grew from household chores to emotional counselor, sibling manager, parental mediator, and medical decision-maker.

And it was all becoming way too much to handle.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITAH for telling my family that I’m tired of parenting them

My (17f) mother was diagnosed with cancer, which was really hard on the family.

She was at the hospital a lot with emergencies, especially during school hours.

This put a lot of the household work onto her.

This meant that I would be cooking and cleaning at the same rate my mother used to, while keeping up with school and after-school lessons.

There was also quite a large emotional toll.

During this time, a lot of traumatic things happened at home which matured me, as I needed to protect my siblings around me. Blah blah blah, sob story over.

My point is I went through a lot mentally — alone — as the eldest daughter.

She’s been picking up a lot of her siblings’ slack as well.

Now my sister has her exams coming up which determine the school she’s going to study at. She’s super disorganized and I was technically forced to help her study for her interviews.

Fine.

Her parents’ relationship started to fall apart right before her eyes.

My parents also had a relationship breakdown in which my mother would get very ill and wouldn’t tell my dad when she was at the hospital. In turn, my dad wouldn’t visit her and they wouldn’t speak for weeks.

My dad would rant to me and I would advise my mother.

This, in turn, added even more to her plate.

I also have to help my mother figure out whether she should take life-saving medication or not, while simultaneously fighting with my brothers because they are convincing her otherwise.

I won’t even get into how much I tell off my younger siblings!

Finally, she’s reaching a breaking point.

All in all, I’m so tired and need to blame somebody for all of this. I already told my mother that I feel like the second mother and she was surprised and upset.

With the amount she was carrying, burnout was pretty much inevitable.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter praise’s this teen’s grit, but also offers some words of warning.

Help and support is there, but she’ll need to seek it outside of the home.

Maybe her parents need to hire outside help.

Her siblings need to start taking on some of the work too.

This is all too much for any one person to handle — especially a 17 year old girl.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.