Living with family can be rewarding, but can also be incredibly stressful.

This man helped raise his partner’s younger brother so the boy’s mother and sister could work.

One year later, he started struggling with burnout and frustration.

The boy had behavioral challenges and often clashed with others, especially during classes.

One tense moment pushed him to react in a way that nobody understood.

Read the full story below for all the details.

AITA for snapping at my partner’s little brother after taking care of him for over a year?

I (20M) live with my partner (23F), her mom, and her 11-year-old brother.

He is a very difficult kid to handle. I work with kids.

He struggles far more than most with listening, emotional regulation, schedules, and anxiety or panic attacks.

This young man has become the primary caretaker of his partner’s younger brother.

He has not had much consistency growing up either.

His mom pulled him out of school around age 5.

She stopped homeschooling him for a long time until I pushed for it to start again.

Over the past year, I ended up becoming one of his main caretakers, while my partner and her mom work.

I help him with homework, chores, meals, training, and more. I care about him a lot.

He started feeling frustrated with the boy.

Over time, I started feeling burned out and frustrated from constantly being in a parental or authority role with him.

I had already talked to my partner recently about wanting to step back.

I wanted to have a more normal “older brother” relationship with him.

I felt like he was starting to resent me.

An incident happened in school where he was teaching at.

The incident happened during martial arts classes at the school where I teach. He is a student there.

After his class ended, he started making loud noises with a walkie-talkie during another class I was teaching.

I told him to turn it down. He turned it back up.

He said his sister told him to use it to tell her when class ended.

I was already frustrated because lately he has stopped listening to me in class.

He treats me more like a brother than an instructor.

He got mad and grabbed the walkie-talkie out of the boy’s hands.

When he talked back, I got angry. I walked over and yanked the walkie-talkie out of his hand.

I told him he cannot talk back to me while I am working. I know I handled that badly.

I should not have reacted physically out of frustration. I did not hurt him, but it was still wrong.

Later, he told his sister what happened.

He included that I looked angry and grabbed it out of his hand. He was not lying.

The boy’s family now thinks he’s the bad guy.

Now, everyone in the house is treating me like I am a terrible person. They are saying I am bad for him.

What is bothering me is that I have spent over a year helping raise and care for him.

Both his mom and sister have said much harsher things to him during their own moments of frustration.

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I am not saying that excuses my reaction. I just genuinely cannot tell if I crossed a serious line.

I also cannot tell if they are reacting too harshly over one frustrated moment. AITA?

That reaction definitely crossed a line, even if it didn’t cause harm.

However, I can understand OP’s frustration because he had been given a responsibility he never asked for.

To be honest, it feels unfair that all his effort got ignored over one mistake.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a friend group that shattered over one couple wanting to bring their kids along on a long-standing annual trip.

Let’s find out what others have to say about this.

This person has a serious question.

This one gives their honest opinion.

Here are more personal thoughts.

Here’s another valid point.

Finally, short and simple.

Taking care of someone doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to lose your temper.

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