In the Middle Ages, having or not having children was considered nearly the most important factor in determining the heirs of royal dynasties - simply because back then, centuries ago, the very survival of the monarchy often depended on it. Things are completely different nowadays, but you can still find people who think in terms of those ancient times.
The story we are going to tell you today comes from the user u/Status-Point4605 and took place quite recently. His sister-in-law tried to redraw his parents’ will—while they were still alive—simply because he is child-free. And, in this woman's opinion, he is thereby unworthy of being the executor of the family estate
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is the eldest of two brothers, he's gay and prefers to stay child-free
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The younger brother is straight and married, and they plan to have kids with his wife
Image credits: Status-Point4605
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The brothers' parents are quite well-off and recently they offered the author to become the trustee of their estate
Image credits: Status-Point4605
Image credits: Silga Be / Freepik (not the actual photo)
However, it turned out later that the author's sister-in-law was mad about this decision, claiming that a childless guy can't be the family estate trustee anyway
Image credits: Status-Point4605
The lady stated that the family bloodline has a 'dead end' in him, so the only worthy people to become trustees are herself and her husband
The Original poster (OP) tells us that his parents are already of elderly age and have retired, although they have amassed a good fortune during their work years. In fact, they have several million dollars in liquid and illiquid assets. Our hero has a background in finance, so his parents recently offered him to become the executor/trustee of their estate. And here's where the problem occurred...
The author is the elder of two brothers, he's gay and he and his boyfriend decided to stay child-free. At the same time, the younger brother is married, and he and his wife are planning to have kids. And it turned out that the sister-in-law has recently been actively persuading her husband to coax his parents to change the trustee of their estate and appoint him and his wife.
The reason? According to this lady, since the OP is childless, the bloodline in his branch will inevitably be interrupted, and the only ones who can continue the family legacy are the brother and his spouse, as they plan to have kids in the future. Accordingly, the SIL believes that the original poster has no right to dispose of the family fortune, and in general he should be cut out of the will.
As we can see, the author's sister-in-law thinks that his childlessness is an obstacle to the effective preservation and increase of the family fortune. At least, that's what she declares. In turn, our hero sincerely believes that his personal life and beliefs in no way make him less worthy of being the executor of the will. Especially when his parents are still alive and quite well.
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
"I strongly suspect that the key factor here is not the childlessness of this man, but the size of his parents' fortune," muses Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch with for a comment here. "In other words, in order to lay hands on this money, the woman is ready to badmouth him anyway."
"For some reason it seems that if the older brother had children, this lady would have come up with another reason why he is 'unworthy' of being the trustee here. Selfishness, disguised as commitment to family values - that's the main motive of this story, I believe. Especially since this woman herself has no kids, and she only plans to have them."
"Be that as it may, all this looks very suspicious and totally inappropriate, so let's hope that the parents will not heed her demands," Irina sums up. By the way, many commenters also believe that there is something fishy here. For example, what if this woman, having received the right to manage the family inheritance, then divorces her husband?
In any case, the responders literally urge the original poster not to succumb to any provocations from his SIL. By and large, the presence or absence of kids in no way affects financial skills, knowledge, and experience in managing assets. So do you, our dear readers, also agree with this viewpoint? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below this post.
People in the comments backed the author, telling that his sister-in-law's pretentions are completely disregarding and inappropriate at least
