Sibling rivalry is real and Reeditor u/Arctic-Bear11345 recently made a post on the popular subreddit 'Am I the [Jerk]?' that illustrates how it can stress a family.
He shared a dilemma regarding his children's upcoming weddings. With Tom, his 26-year-old son, and Judy, his 22-year-old stepdaughter, planning to tie the knot during the same summer, tensions have arisen over the differences in plans and especially expenses.
You see, his wife demands the man ask his son to cover her daughter's expenses, and he thinks this idea is so absurd, he doesn't even want to discuss it.
Image credits: Amar Preciado (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Arctic-Bear11345
The woman expects her stepson to pay quite the price
The average cost of a wedding in 2022 was $30,000 (including the ceremony and reception), according to The Knot's 2022 Real Weddings Study.
The price is high. But experts highlight that averages don't always tell the whole story.
"One $1 million wedding can bring up the average of thousands of $10,000 weddings," said Jessica Bishop, wedding expert and founder of the Budget Savvy Bride. So we should treat this data as a benchmark, not an expectation.
Image credits: Duané Viljoen (not the actual photo)
In blended families, sibling rivalries can cause a lot of problems
There are a number of potential factors that can lead to sibling rivalry between people who are new to being in the same family. Some of the most common ones include:
- the stress of blending two families with their varying personalities;
- unresolved feelings of hurt from the breakup of their other family unit;
- jealousy when their parent treats their stepsibling with love or care;
- jealousy when one child feels slighted;
- insecurity about their own role in this newly blended family.
Image credits: Duané Timur Weber (not the actual photo)
People unanimously backed up the man, saying that he hasn't done anything wrong
