Blending a family isn’t easy, especially when there is a large age gap between the children. It is easy to fall into the trap of relying on older siblings to help parent their younger half siblings. This appears to be the case for one teen who chose to go on a trip with her mom instead of going with her dad’s new family on a Disney vacation.
This teen was not quite sure why her dad and stepmom reacted so emotionally to her decision. She took to Reddit to see if her actions were wrong. She and her mother had not been on a vacation together for seven years, so this was important to her.
The teen begins her tale.
The teen explains the backstory needed to pass judgment on this situation. “My parents are divorced and I (16f) used to bounce between my mom and dad's every other week,” she wrote. “But since last year I stay more with my mom than with my dad. Dad's remarried and mom isn't. My stepmom and dad have 3 kids together (8, 6 and 4). My dad's house has more money and they go on more vacations than my mom can afford.”
This year is different.
The teen was so excited her mom was able to get money for a vacation this year but then things got complicated. “This year my mom was able to get money for us to go on vacation but it overlapped with my dad's Disney booking,” she explained. “I wanted to go on vacation with mom and I told dad that mom and I already had the plans. He said it was the first Disney vacation and he figured I wouldn't want to miss out on my half siblings experiencing it for the first time, But this was the first vacation mom and I were able to do since I was 9.”
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The separate vacations happened but the dad cannot let it go.
Even now that the vacations are over, the dad and step-mom still won’t drop the issue. “It's been over a month since the vacations and in the last week or thereabouts my dad and stepmom went from disappointed but sorta understanding to mad that mom didn't sacrifice the vacation with me so I could enjoy seeing my siblings experience Disney for the first time,” she continued. “They said they were sorry my mom denied me the opportunity to enjoy the amazing moment. I told them they were getting a bit carried away over it all and it wasn't a big deal. They said given how important my siblings are to me it was a huge deal to make me miss out on those memories and experiences with them.”
The dad and stepmom pushed too hard and got more than they bargained for.
This was a step too far for this half sibling. She was forced to remind her dad and stepmom that they were the parents and being on her half siblings' first Disney vacation was not that big of deal to her. She wanted quality time with her mom.
The teen is left to ponder.
“My dad and stepmom did not handle what I said well and maybe I was wrong,” she mused. “They told me my half siblings adore me and they believe I think the world of them too. The fact I admit to not feeling that way and not caring is a cruel thing. They also accused me of leading everyone on.” She wonders if she was wrong in this situation.
The teen was not around to babysit.
One Redditor gets to the heart of the issue pretty quickly. “Were they angry because they were actually expecting you to help with the kids?” the person asked. Many on the site agreed they were missing their free babysitter.
It's OK to be a teenager.
“Of course they were expecting you to wrangle your three half-siblings,” agrees another user. “And your father and stepmother are inappropriately parentifying you. Expecting a sixteen-year-old girl to feign an adult’s enthusiasm for the kids’ first trip to Disney is not only insane on their part, it’s also insulting to make you fake what you don’t feel. Enjoy being a teenager. Enjoy your mother’s company.”
Moms are so important.
Many Reddit users also took issue with the fact that it appears as if the dad and stepmom want to erase the teen’s mom from the picture. She is not the villain in this story and Redditors wanted the teen to know that. She is allowed to want to spend time with her own mother.
The teen can rest easy.
The teenage girl can rest assured that Reddit has her back. Here’s hoping her dad and stepmom also see the light and allow her the space she needs to grow. She seems to have a pretty good head on her shoulders already.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
