Family relationships are built over time, not strictly assigned by DNA.

So when a teen who was adopted as a baby found her biological half sibling moving nearby and pushing for a sisterly dynamic, she said she would rather just be cousins.

The rest of her family didn’t agree with the decision.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITAH for being close with my siblings, but not being a sister to my bio sister/cousin?

I (16f) was adopted when I was a baby. My adoptive parents are my birth mom’s older sister and her husband, so my birth mom is actually my Aunt Nora.

Aunt Nora is not a stable person and had me when she was in high school. That’s why I was adopted by my parents.

But despite this, her biological mom decided to have another child.

A year after I was born, Aunt Nora had another child — my biological half sister, but really just my cousin, Alex.

Alex was not adopted, so Aunt Nora is her mom biologically and in every other way.

Aunt Nora and Alex moved around a lot, so I never really got to know her.

But when they moved back, things got a little awkward.

Recently, Alex has started living with our grandparents, who live nearby. So we see her more now — but it’s kind of weird because she wants us to be like sisters and have the kind of relationship I have with my siblings.

She wants to keep things much more distant.

I don’t really want that. The whole thing just feels weird to me, and I’d rather we just stay as cousins.

Kind of the same as how things are with our other cousins — we’ll hang out at family events but don’t really see each other much otherwise.

Her biological mom isn’t happy about this at all.

She doesn’t think it’s fair that I’m close with my siblings, though.

Her argument is that they’re not really my siblings — just our cousins — and that she is more than just a cousin to me.

AITA?

These types of relationships are ones that you just can’t force — it’s either there or it’s not.

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter tries to see the story from all sides.

This user agrees that this teen shouldn’t do more than she’s comfortable with.

Maybe it’s time to sit down and have a heart-to-heart.

Just because she doesn’t want to be close right now doesn’t mean the two couldn’t be in the future.

When it comes to close sibling bonds, you just can’t force it.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.