The story we are going to tell you today is as old as the world. There is a young mom who gave birth to a child at 19 and a dad who is not in the picture at all. The young mom is completely unprepared for all the joys and sorrows of motherhood and parenthood, and the only thing she wants to do is party and have fun. There are parents who want to help, but their health no longer allows them to do so to the fullest.
And there is an elder sister who decided to stay child-free, but by the will of fate in recent years, she has increasingly had to get involved in taking care of her little nephew. And this elder sister—user u/Angelaaitathrowaway, who is the author of this particular story, wanted to take more decisive action one day...
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is 26 years old and her younger sister has a 3YO son, who was born when she graduated from high school
Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The boy's father is not in the picture, so the mom constantly asks her own mom and her sis to help with parenting and babysitting
Image credits: Angelaaitathrowaway
Image credits: RDNE Stock project / Pexels (not the actual photo)
In fact, the only thing the young mom is interested in is partying, so she usually dumps the kid on her elder sister
Image credits: Angelaaitathrowaway
Image credits: RDNE Stock project / Pexels (not the actual photo)
So, she recently brought her son over without any warning and said she'd be with friends in Myrtle Beach for the next three days
Image credits: Angelaaitathrowaway
The author ended up telling the sister off and threatened to get Child Protect Service involved
According to the Original Poster (OP), she is 26 years old, and she has a 22-year-old sister, "Angela," and a 3-year-old nephew, "Lincoln." The boy was born when his mom graduated from high school, and in fact, neither she nor any of her relatives know who his real dad is. Angela has some ideas on the matter—but nothing more. So, she's a stay-at-home mom, but at the same time, she devotes much less time to the kid than to partying.
And, although earlier, when going to another party, she would dump her son on her mother or her aunt, now that her mother's health has seriously deteriorated, her elder sis has become her main go-to. Moreover, the mom just doesn't bother to warn her in advance—she brings Lincoln there unexpectedly. And more than once, our heroine recalls, she had to bring the boy with her to work.
Fortunately, she has a separate cubicle in the office,—Lincoln is a pretty calm tot, and the employees always support the OP. But things couldn't go on like that—and when Angela recently brought the son to the auntie again, saying that she was going with friends to Myrtle Beach for the next three days, the OP blew up. She took her nephew into the next room, put headphones on him, and told his mom off.
Our heroine said that if her sis doesn't want to bother herself with motherhood, she should think about adopting... And what's more—if in three weeks she didn't pull up her socks with parenting, she'd report her to Child Protective Services. The sister got offended, took the kid, and immediately left. But now the author is experiencing pressure from literally all her relatives who are trying to justify her sis' behavior...
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
"In fact, it was foreseeable—it's quite difficult to expect a person of this age to behave rationally. Secondly, people need to realize they should be responsible for the decisions they make. And if this woman chose to be a mother, then she needs to be prepared for everything that comes with it," says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, who Bored Panda asked for a comment here.
"It seems to me that the elder sister's decision looks quite mature and thoughtful—unlike their mother. Because she has her own life, and she is absolutely not obliged to spend all her free time and even risk her own job—for the sake of babysitting—while her sister indulges in numerous parties.
"Maybe if Child Protect Service gets involved here, it will make the hapless mom change her attitude towards the child to realize what responsibility she has taken on, and what obligations she now has. In any case, I do hope that everything will be fine here, one way or another," Irina summarizes.
The majority of commenters also think that the author did everything right and believe that her sis needs to grow up. And if she doesn't want to do it herself, then perhaps CPS will help her with all this. "This is child abandonment. She needs to step up or let go," one of the responders wrote reasonably. And do you, our dear readers, also agree with this point of view? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
People in the comments sided with the author, claiming that her sister needs to step in and grow up
