A few years ago I read a story about parents who, while raising money for the treatment of their terminally ill daughter, at some point decided to just spend the whole, and hefty, amount on a trip. They said that the girl couldn't be helped anyway - so why waste the money!
At the time, this caused a huge storm of criticism on the internet, but, as it turns out, there are even more outrageous cases. One of these, described by the user u/Renegadesrule33, is what we offer you today: the story of a teenager whose parents made them a forced caretaker for a mentally handicapped younger sis.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is 18 years old and they have a younger sister who is mentally handicapped
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The girl is 12 years old, she is autistic, non-verbal, and definitely needs special caretaking
Image credits: Renegadesrule33
Image credits: seventyfour / Freepik (not the actual photo)
However, the parents have been always putting this burden onto the author's shoulders
Image credits: Renegadesrule33
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The teen actually became the hostage of the situation with the sister - and the parents emphasized this too
Image credits: Renegadesrule33
Image credits: gpointstudio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The teen ended up moving in with their grandfather, and found out that the parents in fact pocketed the money given to hire a caregiver by relatives
Image credits: Renegadesrule33
So the author decided to live with the grandpa, and then to move out to another state for the college
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that they’re now 18 years old, and 12 years ago their whole life went awry after their parents had another child. The girl is autistic and non-verbal, with frequent aggressive attacks, and she has repeatedly broken the author's toys, their Mac, provided by school - and the parents invariably blamed the author for everything.
Moreover, mom and dad never hid the fact that they considered the eldest child just a free caretaker for the youngest daughter, and constantly scolded them if suddenly some of their personal activities interfered with caring for the sis. And when at a school event, the OP was an assigned speaker, neither of them showed up - all for the same reason.
At one point, when the father implied to the author that the only purpose of their existence on this Earth was lifelong care for their younger sister, their patience snapped. They threw a massive tantrum, locked themselves in their room, and then went to their grandpa. Well, there were many surprises waiting for the OP there too, as they told in an update.
As it turned out, over the past few years, many relatives, including the author's aunt, had been giving their parents money to pay for a professional caretaker - money that they obviously pocketed, while placing an unbearable burden on the teen's shoulders. The grandpa was also livid when he found out about all this, and suggested that the author move in with him.
This whole story ended in the parental home, where the author arrived with the grandpa to pick up their belongnings. The father and the sis left, and the mother hugged the OP at the very last moment and said that she had always loved them and that she was asking for forgiveness for everything they had done. The author sincerely hopes that one day they’ll be able to reconcile with their parents... who actually knows?
Image credits: haroonstocks24 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Experts say that parenting children with disabilities is certainly a difficult challenge for any parent, but this is still not a reason to deprive other children in the family of parental attention. "Even if one child requires extra attention, it’s important to find moments to give each of your other children your undivided attention,” this dedicated article at HelpGuide claims.
As we can see, the author’s parents completely ignored this wise advice, and even did the exact opposite, making the older child essentially a “hostage” of the younger sibling’s disability. This study, published on PubMed, states, however, that most caretakers for disabled children are their parents or professional nannies - but not siblings.
People in the comments also expressed their deepest regrets about what the original poster had to endure, and how the parents' attitude actually affected their perception of the younger sister. Of course, the girl herself is not at all to blame. In any case, it was the parents who created this situation in their family.
The commenters do hope that over the years the author will be able to recover from the experiences that befell them, and will be able to just live in peace. “I'm really sorry your parents didn't handle this better, and I hope that one day your anger moves away from your sister,” one of the responders wrote reasonably and wisely... So what do you, our dear readers, think about this story?
People in the comments gave their full support to the author, and criticized their parents heavily
