Do I know you?

You kind of look familiar but I just can’t place it…

Uh oh, that doesn’t sound too good, does it?

Absolutely NOT!

But this person must have had their reasons for acting this way toward their birth parents, right?

Let’s talk a look at their story.

AITA for pretending not to recognize my parents when they tried to reconnect?

“I was raised mostly by my uncle and aunt.

They were unceremoniously given away.

My older sister developed a serious illness when I was 6 and my parents decided that they couldn’t care for both of us I guess, so they kind of unceremoniously dumped me at my grandparents and my uncle took me in.

Like, didn’t even explain to me what was going on, just “you’re going to go visit gran for awhile” and never picked me back up. My grandparents and uncle explained it later, and they were pretty livid at my parents. I’ve seen my parents maybe 5 times since then and not at all for the last 9 years.

No contact was the way to go.

I decided to stop having contact with them when I was 12 and since I was the only one reaching out all communication broke down. It turned out ok, I love my aunt and uncle and it turns out they can’t have kids so they’ve always said I’m their miracle kid, I was just misrouted by the stork at first.

I was formally adopted by them when I turned 18, I wish it had been earlier but there were some red tape things that would have made that really expensive and difficult. I’m 21 now.

And then, tragedy struck.

My sister passed away between thanksgiving and Christmas and I made a trip back from school for the funeral, but I stayed in the back and left before my bio parents could talk to me. They called my uncle to try to talk to me, but I said I didn’t want to so he told them that I wasn’t available at the moment.

Then things got weird.

They finally caught up to me over Christmas when I went to midnight mass with my gran, and approached me and tried to give me a hug. I did recognize them, but I pretended not to and just backed off and said “Sorry, do I know you?”

They said “We’re your parents!” and I said “My parents are at home.” and went and sat down with my gran. They sat behind us and I could just feel the stare, and on the way out they were like “You really don’t recognize us?” And I said “Oh, are you my dad’s brother? I think I remember you from when I was little.”

Feelings were obviously hurt.

My gran thinks they deserved it trying to come back to me like nothing happened, but they wrote me a long letter about how hurt they are and how I should understand that they were trying to do the right thing and how they’ll always be my parents and I can’t change that.

Other family members think I was too harsh as they’re grieving, but I don’t think they should get a pass just because they remembered me now that my sister is gone.”

And here’s how Reddit users reacted.

This person said they’re NTA and shared their favorite part.

Another Reddit user added that the previous statement was actually correct.

This Reddit user said they handled this perfectly.

Another individual made a good point.

And this individual shared a famous quote we should all keep in mind.

Some folks just need to be put in their place.

That’s a fact, Jack!