29-year-old woman refuses to be aunt to her sister-in-law’s children after getting the cold shoulder for years, her brother in outrage at her distance: “I barely consider you family anymore”

Author image for Briana Viser
Briana Viser • Writer and Editor
Aug 2, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

Hey there, ladies and gentlemen of the internet. Some people are born more fortunate than others. It's impossible to measure fortune within someone's life, because life can't be measured. Maybe someone had money growing up, but their parents weren't around. Maybe someone had lots of family around them, but they really knew the value of a dollar. The grass is always greener, and it's too easy to compare ourselves to others. I know that people who grew up moving around a lot as children can easily resent their parents for making them change schools, and adjust to a chaotic placement. Moving around can make it so difficult to maintain relationships, and as a kid, having friends is one of the most important aspects of a child's life. But then there's children who were grossly sheltered, and may feel as though they didn't develop a thick enough skin as an adult, and therefore could resent their parents for not introducing them to the toughness of the world early on. 

In the story below, the protagonist is a woman who's never been close with her SIL, but not by choice. Her SIL has made it clear where she stands in her life, until she needs her. Read the full story below for all the juicy details. 

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  • 01

    My SIL suddenly expects me to act like her kids aunt and I refused. My brother is also trying to fix our relationship but I am not interested. AITA?

    Cheezburger Image 10529196288
    via Liza Summer from Pexels / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    I 29F have 2 older brothers and this is going to be related to James 34M. Sometime around 3 years ago James met his now wife
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  • 03
    Aria 33F and they got married the following year. Aria also has 2 kids from her previous marriage but I'll come back to it later.
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  • 04
    Ever since they started dating Aria has been very clear about her boundaries when it comes to our family. She claimed her previous marriage was a disaster because
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  • 05
    her ex husband was a mommy's boy, her ex MIL was very involved in their lives and she refused to have the same happen with James. James I assume being in
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  • 06
    love with her and wanting to start a family basically agreed with everything so the result was him getting isolated from our family. My parents were never crazy, my
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  • 07
    mom was never an evil type of MIL and this can be confirmed by my other brother's wife who has an amazing relationship with mom. To be honest we would have expected more from James,
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  • 08
    at least to defend us a little in front of his wife or try to keep a closer relationship with us. But he didn't so we spoke to him once, voiced our concerns about her
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  • 09
    being a controlling nightmare and that was it. We left him do whatever he wanted.
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  • 10
    Ever since Aria joined our family, our relationship with them is disgustingly sterile and fake. We only see them for certain events like Christmas, Easter and
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  • 11
    birthdays and everything that comes from them is so formal I guess. I don't know how to explain it but they never share anything with us. The only thing
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  • 12
    Cheezburger Image 10529196544
    via Zurijeta / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 13
    they talk to us is small talk like, how are you, how have you been blah blah but that's it. A recent example that comes to my mind is that my brother got a big
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  • 14
    promotion and somehow it slipped during a dinner we had. They never mentioned him getting that promotion, it was something like yeah now with my
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  • 15
    new role, my schedule changed a little bit. I tried to make a joke and told him wow, good job keeping it a secret bro and Aria told me it was not a secret but
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  • 16
    they are a private family and don't feel like disclosing financial information. Like w……¡, no one asked about finances or money.
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  • 17
    Aria's sister recently passed away and now she suddenly expressed that my SIL and I should be more involved as her kids' aunts. I told her I am sorry for her loss but I only am an aunt to my other brother's kids, not hers. She told
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  • 18
    me this is wrong because we are family and I mentioned that I personally don't consider her or her kids my family. She is my brother's wife, her kids are my brother's step kids but that's it
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  • 19
    Cheezburger Image 10529196800
    via Wavebreakmedia from Getty Images / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 20
    and honestly I barely consider James my family anymore since we are now only related by bl d and nothing else. I am not going to take over a role that I don't
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  • 21
    want for people who I barely know. Apparently my words affected James who asked me if I mean what I said. I told him yes, I mean it. He asked me what can he do to make it better and I told him I don't know, how do you fix
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  • 22
    3 years of treating your siblings and parents like sh because of some strangers that entered your life in your 30s? He claims he is willing to try for us to go back to how things were but I told him I am not interested. He can
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  • 23
    continue playing happy family with his wife and her kids, he doesn't need me for it because I am not a clown to entertain his wife's kids when she feels like it.
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family drama drama toxic family feud relationships sister in law lol love family reddit thread Reddit funny dating
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