Let's make one very important admission to ourselves - no matter how good we are as parents, over time, our children may not be so good. Especially when it comes to our old age and the inheritance looming on the horizon... while the financial situation of the adult children themselves will clearly leave much to be desired.
For example, here is a story from the user u/Radiant_Piglet621, who recently had to literally protect her sick aunt from her own children. And, yes - from children who were eager to take over their late father's inheritance practically the day after his funeral.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post has a seriously sick auntie whose husband passed away because of cancer recently
Image credits: SHVETS production / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The spouses also have two children in their 30s, and they turned out to be incredibly mean and rude towards their mom
Image credits: Radiant_Piglet621
Image credits: Wallace Chuck / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The son shared a roof with his mom and turned the house into a true pigsty, since the aunt couldn't do many chores due to sickness and poor eyesight
Image credits: Radiant_Piglet621
Image credits: Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The daughter, meanwhile, claimed that mom owed her money - and once even dared to hit her in the face
Image credits: Radiant_Piglet621
Image credits: Marcus Aurelius / Pexels (not the actual photo)
So the author decided to follow her aunt's teary pleas and step in to protect her from evil cousins
Image credits: Radiant_Piglet621
Image credits: Keira Burton / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The next day, the woman finished all the proper paperwork to become her aunt's legal guardian - and did her best to protect her bank account as well
Image credits: Radiant_Piglet621
Image credits: Anna Shvets / Pexels (not the actual photo)
One cousin took the news rather calmly, but his sister was livid and yelled at the author, demanding "her money back"
Image credits: Radiant_Piglet621
However, our heroine managed to cope with this problem too, threatening the cousin with a lawsuit over her illegally using her parents' bank accounts
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that her aunt and uncle, both in their 60s, had two children, "Kevin" and "Karen", who are now in their 30s. The author's uncle recently got diagnosed with terminal cancer and, despite all the doctors' efforts, he passed away. Meanwhile, his wife, in turn, has been facing serious problems too.
The OP's aunt has early stages of dementia and her eyesight is very poor too, so cleaning the house is almost impossible for her. And Kevin, who has been living under the same roof as her, didn't want to do any cleaning at all. As a result, the author's mom and another auntie had to step in and clean the pigsty that Kevin had turned the parental home into.
Moreover, it turned out that the brother and sister had already managed to almost drain the parents' bank accounts and, during another conflict over money, Karen even hit her mother in the face. The aunt, in tears, asked her niece to stand up for her - especially since her late husband's inheritance was at stake. And our heroine decided that she had to force her entitled cousins to face the harsh reality...
The following events were described in the OP's update. In the next few days, right before the uncle's funeral, she took all legal measures to become her aunt's legal guardian, after which she blocked Kevin and Karen's access to their parents' bank accounts. Kevin, having learned about this, showed some really unexpected humility, but Karen fully justified her name, loudly screaming demands to "return her money."
However, our heroine also found a way to deal with Karen. She threatened an official investigation into the withdrawal history of her aunt and uncle's accounts - and in light of this, Karen suddenly turned out to be no less humble than her bro. In general, now the original poster sincerely hopes she will be able to provide her aunt with dignity and respect in her old age - although it's quite possible that the cousins will still try to take revenge.
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"Unfortunately, situations like this happen quite often - when children grow up overly entitled, convinced that the whole world owes them something, and the first on their endless list of 'moral debtors' are their parents," says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. "And for them, it doesn't really matter that their parents may already be old and sick. Only their desires matter."
"In fact, this woman's aunt was partly lucky - because she at least had a decent niece and sisters who helped with cleaning the house. At least in these family members, the feeling of kinship prevailed over commercialism. And that means our contemporary world is not so hopeless after all..."
"But seriously, if a person over thirty allows themselves to do something like this towards their own elderly mom - then it's no longer a fact that any therapy can help. Therefore, the drastic measures that this woman took are the right decision. One must let her aunt live out her allotted years in peace - and if this means cutting ties with her own children, well, that's how it should be," Irina summarizes.
People in the comments also heavily praised the original poster for stepping in here, and for trying to stop her cousins from ruining her aunt's life. "Start the lawsuit anyway. Your aunt is going to need care herself, and that will have to be paid for. Suing the children may get her something back," one of the responders wrote quite reasonably.
Indeed, relatives are not always able to stand up for other family members so eagerly and effectively - and the author here deserves nothing but a huge shoutout. The commenters are absolutely sure of this. "Stay strong, hun, and do whatever you have to do! I'm cheering for you!" another responder added. And have you, our dear readers, ever faced or witnessed something similar in your life?
People in the comments gave the author a great shoutout for helping her aunt and protecting her
Image credits: Vitaly Gariev / Pexels (not the actual photo)
