This aunt let her recently divorced sister and 7-year-old niece live with her. The takeaway here is to never do that.
There are many ways to be compassionate and sympathetic to a sibling after a tough divorce, but letting her stay in bed all day every day to grieve while her young daughter has a seemingly endless temper tantrum in your 2-bedroom apartment is not it. This post was shared via this thread on Reddit’s r/AmITheA**hole subreddit by u/aunttired67. She recounted the story of how her niece’s constant shouting resulted in the Redditor getting reprimanded by her managers at work (the original poster works remotely). Later, the niece spilled milk all over the Redditor’s work laptop, effectively breaking it.
As if that weren’t enough, when the niece played games on the original poster’s Nintendo Switch without her permission – and when the young girl’s mother refused to get out of bed to do anything – the Redditor took the device back. The niece promptly took a literal SHARPIE and drew on the living room walls like a MONSTER. That’s when her aunt exploded and called the niece “a spoiled f***ing brat” and the niece started to cry. Now, the sister and her daughter have been staying entirely in their bedroom and have yet to leave.
Evidently, her niece has always been this way (long before the divorce), but she’s obviously going through a difficult, confusing time right now. However, some Redditors pointed out in the comments that 7 should be old enough to realize that day-long temper tantrums don’t work (those of us who are learning this for the first time at 27 are having a hard time stomaching this revelation). Regardless, it is not the aunt’s responsibility to parent her niece. Even if her sister doesn’t feel like getting out of bed and taking care of her daughter during this transition period, she kind of has to whether she likes it or not. Especially while she’s staying in someone else’s home.
For more content like this, check out this story about a woman who called out her sister-in-law for always “forgetting her wallet” at expensive meals.
