A certain level of competitiveness is understandable amongst siblings. After all, no matter how loving and supportive your parents are, folks will always compare siblings — without meaning any harm by it. There’s the eldest and the youngest, the tallest and the smartest, the funniest and the most thoughtful, the quietest and the most sporty. People might not even say it, but the comparison is there, plain and simple, for everyone who knows all the siblings to see.

But as you grow up and mature emotionally, it’s usual for siblings to grow out of this sort of dynamic. When you can mutually appreciate your siblings for who they are, and understand that all your individual quirks don’t make you better or lesser than the others — they just make you you — you will find a much calmer, more tranquil, and supportive relationship with your siblings that you can actually enjoy.

But thanks to a whole lot of childhood trauma, the adult siblings in this story aren’t there yet. So when something gets said at a family gathering that hurts his feelings, the brother quietly takes his leave. Little did he know that would just be the start of the drama.

Read on to find out what happened here.

AITA for leaving my niece’s first birthday after my sister (her mom) embarrassed me in front of the guests?

I’ll start this off by being transparent: my sister and I grew up with an abusive father.

He pit us against each other a lot, which made our relationship rocky for the most part – but being older now and with him out of our lives, we’ve come to respect and love each other.

My sister got pregnant and had my niece last year, and yesterday was her first birthday.

I was excited to go, considering this was a big moment and day for her and I love my niece.

Let’s see how things were at the party.

When I arrived with my girlfriend we greeted all my family and my sister’s boyfriend’s family.

Everyone was having a decent time, and my sister and I were having a nice conversation about how I loved her new house she had moved into and all the changes she’s made to it.

All of a sudden one of the members of the boyfriend’s family asked me if I was a chef. (Disclaimer: I attended culinary school for two years and dropped out unfortunately, because it didn’t feel like the right fit for me)

Before I could even open my mouth, my sister said out loud to the entire party, “No he’s not he dropped out because he’s a loser.”

Yikes. Read on to find out how he felt about that.

I was so taken back I didn’t know what to say, while the family member who asked just apologized for even bringing it up.

My girlfriend grabbed my arm and pulled me outside to talk about it, and I decided to leave because I didn’t feel comfortable anymore. My sister then texted me minutes after I left that I had made the day all about me when it was supposed to be about my niece.

Mind you I didn’t say a word to anyone and I didn’t cause a scene, I just left with my girlfriend because I felt too embarrassed around those people I didn’t know that well.

I just feel really hurt that she didn’t understand how that was wrong and I don’t know if me leaving was a good decision.

AITA?

Old habits die hard, and it seems like some of the competitiveness that their father instilled in the pair led his sister to say something really cruel.

It’s no wonder he walked out – only he will know the true reason why he left culinary school, but it must feel really upsetting when suddenly all these strangers are being told you’re a loser.

That was really unfair by his sister – but worse was turning the situation around on him and guilt-tripping him.

Let’s see how the Reddit community reacted to this.

This person agreed that the sister was the only person in the wrong here.

While others thought that he and his girlfriend did well in an awkward situation.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a friend who is upset they missed out on cheap festival passes due to her pal’s indecision.

Meanwhile, this person unpicked exactly why her comment was so cruel.

He says that he and his sister are in a good place, but this situation suggests that things still aren’t perfect between them. Whether it was that she didn’t want the attention on her brother, or something to do with the stress of the day, this sister said something truly unkind about her brother – in front of a crowd of folks he didn’t know, no less. That’s not a nice thing to do at all.

But the text message that followed them leaving was what makes this even worse. Because she didn’t apologize or see the error of her ways, she just doubled down and made things even worse. If she was trying to hurt him, she did very well, but if she was trying to make the day about her daughter? Well, she did anything but.

This is no way to treat someone you care about.