family feud

Advertisement

Being a scapegoat is not easy, especially if you are one in your family. This Redditor wonders how to soften what she confessed to her family (that she is almost never included), and I think it might be time to stop explaining and explore other groups of people. Dynamics, to continue functioning, have to be fed through both sides; if one stops, the dynamic can't perpetuate itself.

32-year-old woman is the only one not invited to stay in an Airbnb with family on vacation: ‘They go to dinners without me all the time, do things that I specifically say I’d like to do, and claim they forgot to invite me’

family feud hypocrite in laws moving out Family - 45901061

Family argues with in-laws because they are moving out of the country, and now they can't see each other very often, even though they never got together when they lived close by: 'You already see each other just once or twice per year.'

Advertisement

Sometimes gifts come with weird expectations attached. Well, they’re not exactly ‘weird’, but one typically assumes that a gift is a gift and it doesn’t have a receipt, but it does. In the majority of cases, it most certainly does. This is one of those stories in which, to me, both parties are equally in the wrong; therefore, they’re also equally in the right, if you know what I mean, so I will dedicate my time to elaborating each sister’s perspective (or at least my idea of it, of course).

Woman spends all Saturday baking a cake for her sister's birthday, only for her to tell all her guests she got it from the local bakery, so she takes it back home with her: 'She rolled her eyes and said, "Does it really matter?"'

I have no idea why this is so common; I’ve heard and watched so many related stories. Mothers-in-law are, not for nothing, represented in so many folk tales like this. They act very jealous with their sons; they sabotage relationships; they always present themselves as ‘the one who knows best’, and every time a husband is on their side, you are sure to lose.

Bride-to-be specifically asks her wedding guests to wear any colour but white and green for the ceremony and mother-in-law buys two white and green dresses: '“It’s like champagne” she said as she looked it up, and I just knewwww!!'

Very often, our parents want to help us or gift us something to make our lives easier, and they end up making it way more complicated. When we're offered something like this, we tend to accept because we want THEM to feel they are collaborating in some way, not because we really want what's being gifted to us.

Bride allows her mother to organize an afterparty for townhall ceremony and it results in inlaws refusing to attend: 'I instantly panicked and started blaming myself. I figured I must have said something to offend her or made her feel unwelcome somehow.'

Advertisement

We all use the strategies we can to obtain what we want. In a world where money doesn’t grow on trees, it seems that some people are willing to push logic to its very edges to feel like they’re entitled to something. This sister-in-law didn’t waste a second of her time debating whether she was in the wrong; she knew it was ridiculous from the start, but hey, she got to experience her present for ten long years, right?

Woman demands sister-in-law to return a kindle her father lended to her more than a decade ago: 'He said she was tripping (not his words but, you know) and that IF I chose to "return" it, the conditions weren't specified'

family drama family feud family Family - 45952005

Mother refuses to let her 18-year-old daugther go on a trip to Miami with her boyfriend: 'We know she's legally an adult, but she still lives at home'

Sometimes doing a good deed can get out of hand. At first, you do it because you can and because it has a positive impact on the other person; then you begin to wonder whether the positive impact would be to let that same person be aware of their reality and where they stand, even though it can hurt a little at first.

34-year-old man secretly pays for his 28-year-old brother's credit card debt and now his brother thinks he is a financial genius: 'Last week, he told our parents he's writing a BOOK about personal finance'

Advertisement

There are always many sides to a story, and depending on which you tell it from, it benefits one side or the other. In this son’s particular case, I don’t think it’s even that problematic; the person he messed with was doing something bad. He wonders whether or not he should have stepped into the situation at all.

Son defends father of being kicked out by digging into coordinator's records and finding shady information: 'My dad says I did the right thing but part of me wonders if I shouldve just let him handle it his own way instead of getting involved like that'

Haven’t we all done something like this in high school? Pretending to really like a band for someone to notice us, becoming a skater to belong in a group, dyeing our hair because our crush likes blondes…OK, I might have gone too personal there, but this is an example of the same type of behaviour. Instead of about a crush, it’s about a father-in-law’s approval. In the end, it’s all the same, a never-ending search for love. I'm feeling romantic today, lol.

Man spends 4 years pretending to have an obsession with a very niche hobby just to get his father-in-law's approval: 'For the first year, we sat in agonizing silence during every family gathering. I was desperate'

When your family thinks you're too young to demand your own bed The practical explanation might be simple: ‘They’re the youngest, they’re more flexible, they’ll manage’. Sometimes, when you are the youngest sibling, you’re forced to remain in a babyfied position. This is probably not on purpose; it’s just a way of functioning that got stuck when you were a baby.

24-year-old youngest sister refuses to go on family vacation due to sleeping arrangements: 'Since I am the youngest sibling, I have to put up with whatever option was the most inconvenient'

Advertisement

I love you, therefore I feed you Food can look different in different cultures, but it always means practically the same thing. Humans have gathered around food since forever and have also constructed countless rituals surrounding it. Feeding is one of our first contacts with the world around us when we’re babies and are fed by our mothers. Most of the time, food signifies love, community, connection, nurture, interdependence, etc.

52-year-old woman is constantly pushing her homecooked food onto 60-year-old sister and 80-year-old dad: 'We don't want her pickles!'

Sometimes parents perceive one child as more competent, intelligent, or strong; as a result, the other children under the same roof are favoured and protected, while the other is expected to endure and handle everything as an adult would. In the story below, I think the brother who tells it was put in this position because he's the oldest and witnessed the family's hardest times.

38-year-old parents demand their least favourite child defend them and his spoiled siblings against the rest of the family: 'They have become such spoiled brats and my parents act surprised when people call it out'

family drama wedding drama brother sibling rivalry siblings family feud wedding family weddings Family - 45106693

35-year-old daughter dumbfounded by her aging father's demand that she take her 9-year-old half-brother on vacation to France with her family and own 8 and 4-year-old children: 'We wanted the trip to be just us and our kids'

Advertisement

family drama wedding drama brother sibling rivalry siblings stepchild family feud wedding family stepsister weddings Family - 45087493

Woman refuses to watch her step-sister's 5 and 6-year-old children after being left with the children overnight the last time she watched them: '[She] didn't come back until Monday, 3 hours after I should have gone to work'

family drama aita wedding drama brother reddit story family feud wedding etiquette family reddit thread weddings Family - 45008389

'Update: She booked the venue out from under us...': 31-year-old bride reluctantly accepts $25,000 gift from her future mother-in-law, who proceeds to hijack the wedding, hiring a "secret" wedding planner and secretly booking their desired venue