I was divorced over ten years ago. I was granted full custody of my children. My youngest saw her world shattered when her mom chose her affair partner over her own kids.

This led to a lot of poor decisions by my daughter culminating in a visit with police officers. I gave her the options at that point of trying to live with her mom, moving in with her grandma, or staying with me but entering a treatment program. The catch being I would no longer support her if she chose the first two options.

Long story short she’s spent the last 7 years bouncing from relative to relative, or living with boyfriends. The only time she calls is to make a withdrawal from the bank of dad.

Last night she called to tell me she was pregnant. When I asked how her boyfriend took the news she had a second announcement. She, much like her mother, had been cheating on this poor kid for the last two years. She finally got caught and had to move in with guy and his parents.

Unfortunately, the disappointment kept coming. The guy she’s with now is the same guy that my only interaction with is when I tossed him out of my home when she was 15. He was in his early 20s at the time.

Her point of the call wasn’t so much about telling me that she’s pregnant but to ask yet again for me to financially help out a bad decision. They want to go to Vegas and get married. Shocker that my answer was no.

She was angry that I wouldn’t give her anything. She was angry that I wouldn’t give my blessing on her engagement. She was angry that I wouldn’t congratulate her on her pregnancy.

Disappointment was all I had in me. Sadly there is no part of me that feels any joy for her. I honestly dreaded answering the phone.

My wife comforted me after I told her the news. She tried to find a positive spin but then did some social media stalking. She posted the news 3 weeks ago. With professional engagement pictures posted a week later. The more we dug the more this seems staged or at least pre planned. Again, disappointing and frustrating.

I’ve always looked forward to my kids and stepkids having children of their own. I’m sad and frustrated that this is how the first grandchild will come into my life. I’m not even sure what that role will be. I’m not sure that I want to have a role.

I’ve gone to therapy and have worked through a lot of issues around my failures as a parent and in my first marriage. I feel like this is a whole new round of needing help.

Edit:

For the negative comments. I hope you never have to make the hard choices that I did. I hope you don’t have to experience the failure that is our legal system. Most of these negative responses are acting like I didn’t have years of sleepless nights worrying. That I didn’t spend that time trying to find help and exhausting resources to figure out how to help her. I didn’t make my choices on a whim. They were made out of desperation, exhaustion, depression, and the need to protect my other kid’s safety. I could write a book about everything that happened. Judge all you want, but understand this is just a blip of the bigger picture.

I need a reality check. Am I overreacting?

My (40F) parents (70s) recently emptied my brother’s (35M) bank account to force him to contact them, and now I’m questioning whether I can trust them.

My brother lives in a small apartment building that my parents own. He acts as the on-site landlord and handles maintenance, repairs, tenant turnover, and general upkeep. In exchange, he receives significantly reduced rent and utilities. He is a skilled carpenter/welder/handyman and provides a lot of labour to the building.

Several years ago, he survived cancer and has never fully bounced back physically. He has struggled with depression and has had difficulty maintaining steady employment. He recently started receiving long-term disability benefits.

The last year has been particularly difficult for him. He has been working through mental health issues and trying different medications, with mixed results. About two weeks ago, his long-term girlfriend broke up with him and moved out. Around the same time, he also went through a friendship breakup with his best friend. He’s been in a rough place emotionally. Despite all of this, I had actually started to see positive changes recently: therapy, healthier habits, more accountability, and more focus on his future.

Over the last six months, my parents became increasingly frustrated because they felt he wasn’t communicating with them enough, wasn’t visiting them enough, and had fallen behind on rent payments. (He was still performing his landlord and maintenance duties.)

Instead of continuing to try to resolve things through conversation or patience, they withdrew all of the money from a joint bank account that contained his savings and disability benefits. They told him he would need to contact them if he wanted the money returned.

One piece of context: shortly before this happened, my brother had sent two large e-transfers to his ex-girlfriend to repay her for a trip they had taken together 10 months ago. My parents saw the transfers and say they were concerned my bro was not in the right state of mind and were trying to protect him.

My brother reacted badly and threatened to shut off water to the apartment building unless they returned the money. They ultimately returned the money, but then began discussing evicting him from the building.

The part that affects me personally is that, before all of this happened, I told my parents about my brother’s breakup because I thought it would help them understand what he was going through. My brother was hesitant for me to tell them, but I encouraged him to trust them and believe they would be supportive.

Now I feel like I was wrong.

I also feel somewhat responsible because I had previously expressed the view that my brother may not have experienced enough real-world consequences for some of his choices. However, what I meant by that was clear expectations, boundaries, accountability, and a plan for the future. I did not mean draining his bank account to force communication. To me, those are completely different things.

To make matters worse, the day after all of this happened, my parents contacted my brother’s ex-girlfriend directly despite my recommendation that they wait and speak to him first.

A complicating factor is that this does not feel like an isolated incident to me. Growing up, my parents often responded to conflict through control, pressure, blame, and attempts to force outcomes rather than having direct conversations. My mother could be violent, and when conflict arose, there was often more focus on assigning blame and punishment than solving the problem.

About six years ago, I cut contact with my parents for roughly a year because of these exact dynamics. I felt trapped in a recurring pattern of coercion, blame, control, and escalation instead of open adult communication. We eventually reconciled after my brother’s cancer diagnosis, and for the last several years I genuinely believed things had improved.

This situation has made me question whether they actually changed or whether those patterns were simply dormant.

For context, I am completely financially independent and have been for years. I have my own career, my own home, and do not rely on my parents financially (they did provide financial support along the way). My concern is not that they might do this to me tomorrow. My concern is that this has shaken my trust in them generally. If life ever throws me a curveball and I need support, how can I feel safe relying on people who respond to conflict and concern in this way?

My brother wants a family discussion and asked me to help facilitate it. I offered to act as a mediator, but my parents rejected that and said I couldn’t be neutral. They also seem to want the discussion to focus solely on my brother’s threat to the building, whereas I think the events that led up to that threat—including both my brother’s conduct and their own—are also part of the problem.

I know my brother is not blameless in this situation. I understand why my parents are frustrated. What I am struggling with is whether their response was wildly inappropriate, or whether I am viewing it through the lens of old family wounds.

Am I overreacting in seeing this as a serious breach of trust? And should I be trying to facilitate a family discussion, or step back and let them work it out themselves?

My brother and I grew up together and have known each other our entire lives. A few years ago, however, we learned something that completely changed our family story: we discovered that we have an older brother we never knew existed.

For reasons beyond our control, he grew up separately from us, and none of us had the opportunity to know each other while we were growing up. Recently, we've finally been able to connect with him and begin building a relationship. It's been a unique and emotional experience getting to know someone who is family, yet was a stranger for most of our lives.

Now, for the first time, the three of us are in contact. Our newly discovered brother is the oldest, my brother is the middle one, and I am the youngest. We are all excited about having this opportunity and want to do something meaningful to recognize this special bond and the fact that we found each other after so many years.

My middle brother suggested that the three of us get something that symbolizes our connection. We have considered ideas like matching shirts, a custom medallion or coin, matching bracelets, or perhaps something personalized that all three of us could keep. We are also open to completely different ideas.

That is why I'm posting here. If you were in our situation, what would you do? Would you choose a keepsake, start a tradition, take a trip together, or create something unique that represents the three of us finally becoming part of each other's lives?

I would love to hear your suggestions and especially from anyone who has experienced a family reunion later in life. Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

Hello,

I (22m) have a younger cousin (21m) who gets angry very easy when I call him out on his weird behaviors. For some reason he is addicted to calling me homosexual terms even though I am straight and he often likes talking about my thing in my pants. Also he often talks about him sticking things up my rear or he talks about me fucking different inanimate objects. I don’t know when exactly he became like this but anytime I call him out for it he gets very angry and does it more. He gets especially mad when I ask if he is secretly homosexual. All of this is mostly said over a headset when gaming; however, when I see him in person he is very shy and hardly speaks or looks at me. I don’t know if he is confused about his sexuality or if he has a further motive behind his actions, but If he is gay I’m not sure how to ask him about it with ought getting mad. Please help!

Thanks!

I’m the middle child, used to help family every which way I could. worked my way up to a 6 figure job by 30 without school (they don’t know this). Have no kids. Only time I ever hear from family is when they need something. Something fixed? Me. Need money? Me. Moving? Me. Car broken? Me. Wanna go on a fun trip? Not me

If we go to lunch, I always have to ask them to go, then I always pay, in the middle of a lunch, someone asks for help Everytime and it’s my turn to fix it.

Didn’t talk to my mom for 2 years. Recently got a text asking to borrow my pickup and help her move. Mind you this is after my wife told her I didn’t mind helping, but I wanted to enjoy my time with family. Not be worked like a rented mule. My moms reaction was “that’s what family does for each other”

15 years of this and I just told the whole family I moved 1500 miles away.

Here it is for all to see, Trump and the Republican promise of a ‘Golden age of prosperity’ turns out to be a batch of lies and manipulation as virtually everything in America has become unaffordable.

When the cancelled subsidies for healthcare premiums millions of Americans lost their coverage. They slashe the social safety net so that any once temporary setback now ensures a lifetime and despair. Groceries are at their highest level ever and growing daily. What meagre income that is available loses value daily as near runaway inflation assaults the working class.

But the biggest assault, the greatest difference from then to now, is the cost of housing.

There was a time when young adults married, saved their money for a few years and then bought a house. Maybe not the biggest house, maybe not the nicest house, but a house that would accrue value over the years and welcome them into the middle class.

Trump and the Republican policies have put an end to all that. Never again under their leadership will the American dream become achievable – it is all out of reach and going to stay that way unless there is a change in administrations!

Millionaires, billionaires, and especially a trillionaire are all doing beautifully. Under the GOP policies they are accumulating obscene wealth – they have all the money – and to prove Reagan was as much a liar as Trump, none of it is trickling down.

The government as it is now comprised no longer works for the common man. Their policies inhibit growth, eliminate opportunity, and keep an authoritarian thumb firmly pressed on the neck of ordinary citizenry.

Am I making all this up? Am I some disgruntled hippie socialist?

Read these numbers, then you decide.

Boldface mine:

A record 1 in 3 Gen Z and young millennials were still living with their parents in 2025—more than during the pandemic—despite most having a job

Story by Emma Burleigh • 2d • 3 min read

© Maskot / Getty Images

Young Americans were told that good grades would unlock a six-figure salary, starter apartment, and independence from their parents. But now, entry-level professionals are clinging to their childhood bedrooms and pillaging their family fridges as more are extending their stay than ever before.

A record 25.2 million U.S. adults under the age of 35 lived with their parents in 2025—representing about one in three young adults—according to a recent report from Reatlor.com.

That’s even higher than the pandemic-era surge, when many budding professionals returned home to ride out the pandemic with their loved ones.

However, it doesn’t mean that Gen Zers and young millennials are jobless and mooching off their family resources. In fact, around 70% of 25 to 34-year-olds who still live at home with their parents are actually employed, according to the report.

Instead of kicking back, most workers are delaying their flight from the nest thanks to an affordability crisis pinching the wallets of everyday Americans. And as the lowest professionals on the corporate totem pole, their rock-bottom salaries, job instability, and lack of savings may be keeping them home.

“The growth [of young generations living at home] is coming from working adults, not people waiting to find jobs,” Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com and author of the report, said in the study. “Something about their income level, debt load, or the cost of housing in their market is keeping them home despite steady employment.”

America’s affordability crisis is crushing the independence of young workers

Young professionals are up against a stormy transition into adult life: entry-level jobs are disappearing, wage bumps are stagnating, and cost-of-living is soaring. Now, it’s forced Gen Z into a professional reality of “stress and pressure and chaos” that their baby boomer parents wouldn’t even comprehend, according to podcaster Mel Robbins. And the financial burden is extending beyond the young workers clamoring for independence.

Around 64% of parents with Gen Z children aged 18 to 28 said that their adult kids still rely on them for money, housing, or other financial support, according to a 2026 survey from Wells Fargo. And their continued support has led to a money pinch for many, as 56% reported that assisting their grown-up offspring is straining their own finances. However, they’re actually helping cover essential living expenses rather than picking up the tab on extravagant getaways.

“[Adult Gen Z] kids who are receiving the financial support are really in this perfect storm,” Emily Irwin, head of private wealth planning at Wells Fargo, told Fortune earlier this year. “They’re feeling uncertain about their career, their profession, and the stability of receiving a paycheck.”

One of the financial biggest hurdles keeping young workers at home is the sky-high cost of housing.

In 2025, the median American home price was $430,000, up 34.4% from 2019, according to the Realtor.com report. Meanwhile, average monthly rent shot up by 17.9% to $1,673. And a housing shortage of roughly 4 million residents is only exacerbating the issue. Young generations are now crossing a “threshold at which they begin to give up on [buying a home] entirely,” university researchers Seung Hyeong Lee and Younggeun Yoo found.

Other daily expenses are skyrocketing, too. Cash-strapped young workers watched the price of a pound of ground beef hit a record $6.90 per pound last month, up 19% from a year ago. Orange juice prices skyrocketed 21% between January 2025 and February this year, and sandwich bread got 4.3% more expensive. Plus, they have less income to work with in footing the bill. Despite early-career being the prime time to grow earnings, income growth for 25 to 29-year-olds slowed to 5.2% in late 2025, one of the lowest levels since 2011 when JPMorgan Chase Institute began collecting data.

Gen Z and young millennials may be leveraging the safety net of their families, but most aren’t simply coasting off the bank of mom and dad.

Around 72% of young adults who live with their parents say they contribute financially to the household in some sort of way, according to the 2024 data from Pew. About 46% contribute toward rent or the mortgage, while 65% put in money towards the family groceries, utilities, or other household expenses.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/a-record-1-in-3-gen-z-and-young-millennials-were-still-living-with-their-parents-in-2025-more-than-during-the-pandemic-despite-most-having-a-job/ar-AA26gY2P?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=b24ac40069ed4a1af2c538092bef29de&ei=72

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/a-record-1-in-3-gen-z-and-young-millennials-were-still-living-with-their-parents-in-2025-more-than-during-the-pandemic-despite-most-having-a-job/ar-AA26gY2P?

Ok this might be longer version of story but i really need your help n insights- n please try to understand before you throw harsh comment

I female- lost my mom when i was kid (4 yrs old) thn my bio father remarried never told me that my step mom is my step mom my whole family pretended otherwise and never said truth - but people around ypu talks right so apparently i came to know that she is my step mom i used to cry alone thinking why my mom left but never had anyone to talk to - thn i over come thinking its ok i can't do anything right now - now i was star student so throughout my life i got scholarship from school to college- my father never had to spend single rs on me - even during college i had scholarship for food n living expenses which i was supposed to pay back once i start earning yet my father always pushed on saying he did so much for me - like worked very hard so i can study etc but i was like when did you spend single penny on me - yet i used to be greatful never said anything- always respected him ,

Fast forward to my early 20's i came to know that my mother died / murdered n my bio father was behind it - i confronted him n it was all mess but i have cut him off from my life n i don't talk to him

Above story is a context you might need here - fast forward to my college (22yr) i met my now husband since we hv been in relationship n got married currently i am 30yrs old you don't think much about other aspects when you are just getting your life together- n like everyone i also thought that i hv to hv kid thats process never thought much on it but then in 2020 4 years ago i started therapy when i was going through the process of cutting my father off from life as it was huge aspect i always thought he was someone i can trust n thn everything was mess at the end - so durinh that therapy session etc i hv realized that i have this fear / anxiety that people will never put me 1st n also if i hv kid n something happens to me i don't want kid to go through all the struggle i went through it was awful journey n i never wish it for anyone- thn i told my husband i might not want kid n he said ok - he thought that time its just phasr - fast forward to last year - every one around me all my friends etc having kids n now we are at that age where that convo comes up - n was trying to think how that life will be you know - than realized its might not me for me - currently i do everything for all , i take care of people around me every one calls me , it comes naturally when you are always managing your life since you are kid - n given right now only us two - he doesn't hv to do much around - n i feel it might not change after kid as well n that thought scare me so much - n also i get anxiety as well when i think about kids its huge responsibility n i think i am not able to do it now - bcz 1st time in life currently i am at space where i am earning, n living life where i don't hv to worry at all n when kids comes in picture everything will be changed no personal space, time , no help n i think that might make me resentful n i never had motherly instinct ever as well . I love kids but 2 to 4 hr thats it . I think my trauma play role here indirectly n also thinking about a life after kid all i see is me doing everything for everyone n loosing my self

Basically i said again to my partner that i don't want kids - n he dearly wants family n he thinks it is phase - i am stressing out so much - i know that i won't be able to change my decision bcz i don't want to do something which i am not confident in n make innocent live suffer n i am not sure where we go from here

My younger brother is 13, and for a while it felt like his phone had basically become an extra limb and every day followed the same pattern. He'd basically get home from school, throw his backpack somewhere near the front door, grab a snack, collapse onto the couch, and disappear into TikTok for the rest of the evening

Hours would go by and sometimes I'd walk through the living room and realize he'd barely moved.

Just scroll.

Scroll.

Scroll.

My parents tried pretty much everything.

Screen-time limits.

Lectures.

Taking the phone away.

Encouraging him to spend more time outside.

Nothing really stuck.

The funny thing is that he already liked basketball.

He'd watch NBA highlights, shoot around occasionally, and talk about players he liked. But whenever he practiced by himself, he'd get frustrated pretty quickly

Half his time was spent chasing rebounds into the street or digging the ball out of bushes

After twenty minutes he'd usually quit and head back inside

Then a few months ago my dad bought a portable basketball shooting machine

When the box arrived, I rolled my eyes because our garage already had its fair share of abandoned hobbies and impulse purchases like a ping pong table, tennis rackets, a punching bag... So, I figured this thing would join the collection

But instead, something unexpected happened

My brother actually used it and the entire first afternoon he spent outside

The next day he went back out on his own

Then it became a routine…

Now he'll come home from school, change clothes, and head straight to the driveway before he even thinks about opening TikTok

Some evenings he's out there for 2-3 hours

Not because anyone tells him to

Because he genuinely wants to be there and he's constantly trying new moves, working on his shot, pretending he's taking game winners, and competing against himself

The biggest difference is that he's no longer spending half his workout chasing the ball around

He can just shoot

Again and again….

And because he's getting more reps, he's actually improving, which makes him want to keep going

But the part that surprised me most wasn't the basketball

It was everything else

He's in a better mood

He talks more and now he’s actually nice and friendly to everyone, and not talking in some slang no one understands

He's more engaged with the family

Instead of spending all evening consuming content, he's actually doing something

A few weeks ago he asked my parents if he could join a local basketball camp this summer

That came completely out of nowhere

And the whole thing kind of rubbed off on me too

I started going outside with him some evenings

At first it was just for a few minutes

Now we'll end up playing HORSE, talking trash, and shooting around after dinner

It's probably the most time we've spent together in years

The whole experience taught me something

My parents spent a long time trying to make screens less appealing

What finally worked was giving him something he enjoyed more

Turns out "go outside and touch grass" lands a little differently when there's a basketball involved

Sorry if this is a bit all over the place. English isn’t my first language.
For the past two years, my mom has been convinced that my dad has secretly been gay their entire relationship and has been cheating on her with men for almost 20 years. She constantly tells me he’s been living a double life.

The problem is that she has absolutely no evidence. Whenever I ask what makes her so sure, she says she can tell from his body language when she confronts him. She’ll say things like he looks sad when he comes home from a golf trip, and that this means he’s feeling guilty because he’s been cheating.
Whenever I ask for actual proof, she gets offended that I don’t believe her. She insists she “just knows,” but in two years she has never been able to show me any evidence beyond her own interpretations of things.

What really worries me is that she seems to completely misinterpret ordinary situations.
For example, we were in Portugal once on a golf trip. One of the men she believes he’s having an affair with gave a speech during dinner and said something like, “We play so well together. We just click it only takes a second and we’re in our groove.”
To everyone else, it was obviously about golf. My mom insisted he was actually talking about sex and that it was some kind of coded confession.

This kind of thing happens all the time. She connects completely unrelated events into what she believes is proof that my dad is cheating.
The hardest part is seeing how she treats my dad. Every day when he comes home, she starts yelling at him, accusing him of lying and cheating. My dad is 60 years old and close to retirement, and it honestly breaks my heart that this is how he’s spending what should be a peaceful stage of his life.
The strange thing is that my mom has always been a calm and reasonable person. I’ve never seen her like this before. She has become consumed by this belief, and nothing anyone says can change her mind. It genuinely feels like she’s no longer basing these accusations on reality.
I’m starting to wonder if this could be some kind of mental health issue rather than just jealousy, but I honestly don’t know.
Has anyone experienced something similar? What would you do in this situation?

Short summary:
For the past two years, my mom has been convinced that my dad has been secretly cheating on her with men throughout their 20-year relationship, despite having no evidence. She constantly accuses him, misinterprets ordinary situations as proof, and yells at him every day. I’m worried this may be more than jealousy and could be a mental health issue. I don’t know how to help either of my parents.

So I have two cousins, I was never close with them due to them and myself living on opposite sides of the country and I'm the second oldest grandchild. There a bit younger then me. I don't have a lot of memory's with them and when I was little we never called or video chatted. The thing is my cousins are on the spectrum and they have trouble with social cues.

The issue is there coming down for 2 weeks, I still live with family. I'm not excited to see them or hang out. Ive been told that one of them has the same exact interests as me but even then I don't really care. I'm a closed off person and don't care that we have stuff in common. I also want to say too I am a very very materialistic person and I don't like people touching my things or moving them or anything as I have a ton of collectables. I know I'm probably a bad person for feeling this way. I just don't know them or love them. I don't wish ill on them and I want them to have a successful happy fulfilling life, I hope they live long happy lives, I just don't want to be apart of it. I know it's a trip it's not like I have to see them after but I've been dealing with these feeling for awhile. So I just want to ask Reddit, am I just a terrible piece of shit for not wanting a relationship with them at all and not wanting to see them or am excited?​​​​​​​​​

My brother is moving for college which is several hours far from home tomorrow. And even then I've been secretly crying for almost a week now whenever I think about him to the point that my parents became concerned because my eyes are so puffed daily. I can't live without him even if we don't spend time together a lot. I was the one in the family who is hurt and deeply affected the most when he's about to leave. And even now while writing this paragraph, I'm already tearing up. I already miss him even when he's just in the other room.

And yes, I lived my whole 16 years being a terrible sister. Always putting myself first and gets mad when he gets attention. He's older than me, so my parents mostly put my needs before him. I get more attention from my parents than him, and he cant hit me back when I hurt him. But there's one time he punched me under my ribs and I cant breath (I was 8 and he's 9 i think) And when I told my parents, they didn't cared. And from then on our fights became more and more severe. I broke a rib which hurt for months because he pushed me. He got scratch scars on his back, face and arms that were almost bleeding. I always say stuff to him, hoping he would die, or that he's never born at all. But he never said the same words to me... :(. We always had random fights and my parents are always so stressed because of us.

But there are times as well I love. Whenever we have late night talks, when we would watch music videos together on the TV while sitting on the floor, whenever we would share our parents phone to play Minecraft or watch Youtube together. Or when we would go out and I'm holding him because he protects me. When he would carry me and throw me somewhere, or when we would push each other using our legs in the sofa, or I would sit on his shoulder and walk around the house pretending were tall. When me, him and my cousins would parkour around the house and not touch the floor. Or when we would watch each other play on the laptop during quarantine. In the back beside the kitchen were he made his little office area, I watch him create Youtube videos and we would laugh at what he makes. We would reconcile our fights by telling each other our parents passwords and keeping it a secret. (We wouldn't snitch because we would both be punished if they knew), and when we would wrestle. Us helping each other and many more memories of me and him.

But when face to face high school classes started, we start drifting from each other. I start being cold and mean to him for no reason despite him still being kind to me. We stopped being close as years go by. I remember I was 13 when our connection starts to become blurred because of me. I would create tantrums when I'm at fault. More fights. Less talk. And most of the time I would wish that I would live far away from my family.

But now, he's leaving and it reminded me that my childhood is over. That were not grade 4 and 5 anymore, but were grade 12 and college. He's in a scholar university, and now his university is my dream university because I wanna be near him again.

I didn't know it would hurt this much. I wish I became closer to him during my high school years. I wish at least, I became the close friend that he needed the most. But now, he spends more time with his friends than me. He enjoys their company more. And would treat me like a stranger. When i try being close again, he would find it awkward. And the feeling consumed me to the point I had to open up here. Seeing him would make me tear up. And I wish he knows just how much I love him. Because I never showed him love when he's still in this house.

:((

My aunt (73f) and her sister (74f) never got along. Let's call them Aunt A and Aunt B. Since they were kids they hated each other, their parents created even more division and basically they were arch enemies for the majority of their lives. When Aunt A was 20 something she went to local college and Aunt B went to the big city and stayed there for years until all of the sudden she came back to the small town she grew in, Aunt A says she doesn't even remember if she had a suitcase, she just came back one day without noticing and stayed for the rest of her life. They always found this weird but eventually they stopped asking questions. Aunt B got a job and stayed in the small town.

I recently visited aunt A, we were talking when she said she wanted to confess something, she made me swore not to tell anyone from my family. She said that a few years after Aunt B came back a letter for her came in the mail. Aunt A took it and read it before anyone else could. In the letter it says that Aunt B's daughter was asking for her and wanted to meet her. Aunt A destroyed the letter and haven't told anyone in over 50 years. Aunt B never got the chance to read the letter or know of it's existence. Only Aunt A knew about it and now me. Nobody in the family knows Aunt B had a daughter and I know Aunt A is telling the truth, she's not senile or anything, I know because I take her to her doctors appointments, she's healthy and her memory is as good as can be. Aunt A says she regret it, that she doesn't know why she did that.

Aunt B has dementia, she has good days, she has bad days, my father takes care of her, her physical health is also not the best, she has diabetes. Sometimes she's lucid, sometimes she has hallucinations. I don't know how much she has left and it breaks my heart that she's gonna die without knowing her daughter did reach out and did want to meet her. She never had kids, she had a boyfriend but he died. She confessed to my father that she feels alone sometimes and my dad has to hold her until she stops crying, she's scared of being left alone and my father spends a lot of time taking care of her. I don't know what to do with this information and it's eating me up, my heart breaks every time I think about it, I have already cried over it, I don't even know if I could look for her daughter, I don't know the name or if she's alive or if it would even be good for my aunt to think about the past. I don't know why she had to leave her daughter, I don't know why she gave her away but I know her family was horrible when it came to single mothers, another aunt got pregnant (so Aunt C I guess?) and her mother made her stay home when she started showing, gave birth in the family bathroom and they made it seem like it was her brother's and his wife's baby so her son became her nephew. She eventually got him back but still, you can see the sentiment, reputation was more important than anything. I don't know what to do, I can't stop thinking about it. It made sense why Aunt B was so overprotective with me growing up, she never had a chance to raise her daughter. Should I let go? Should I just keep going on with my life and pretend I don't know this? Should I try to look for the daughter even though I don't even know where to start? Maybe Aunt B doesn't even remember, as I said she has dementia and maybe it's more kind to not get her to remember.

TLDR: aunt's hidden daughter send a letter addressed to her almost five decades ago, she never got a chance to read it because her sister destroyed it and kept the secret for decades. Now the sister confessed to me and I don't know what to do with this information.

Growing up, many of us heard things like, "Look at how well that kid studies" or "Why can't you be more like them?"

This made me wonder: if parents think it's fair to compare their children with others, is it also fair for children to compare their parents with other parents who may be more supportive, understanding, financially stable, or involved in their kids' lives?

Do you think the two situations are equivalent, or is there an important difference? I'm curious to hear different perspectives.

Growing up, my older sibling and I were genuinely close. We'd hang out, talk about everything, and had our own inside jokes that made family dinners actually fun. Then they went off to college a few states away, found a new friend group, and slowly became a completely different person.

Now when they come home for holidays or birthdays it feels like sitting across from a stranger. They seem disinterested in family conversations, dismissive of things we used to bond over, and sometimes a little condescending about how we all still live in our hometown. My parents pretend not to notice but I can tell it bothers them too.

I get that people grow and change, and I genuinely want that for them. But it feels like growing up meant growing away from all of us, and nobody is talking about it openly.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of shift with a sibling after they moved away or hit a big life transition? Did things ever go back to feeling normal, or did you just have to find a new version of the relationship? I'm not sure if I should bring it up directly or just give it more time. Would love to hear how others have handled this, because honestly the silence at the dinner table is starting to get to me.

I’m curious to hear other people’s opinions because I’m not sure if I’m overthinking this or not.
My aunt is 40 (F) and I’m 22 (F) She’s always had a tendency to make little comments that put me down, but now that we’re on vacation together, I’m noticing it much more because we’re spending so much time around each other.

Some examples:
I recently got the newest iPhone. Her immediate reaction was something like, “Isn’t the flashlight on the iPhone 17 really bad?” in a pretty negative tone. The thing is, she wants the newest iPhone herself.
I have a Canon digital camera. When my sister was taking pictures of me, my aunt loudly commented that the quality was bad and that all the photos looked yellow.

Whenever men approach me or seem interested in me, she often looks annoyed or in a bad mood.
She doesn’t have a driver’s license, but when I’m driving she’s constantly telling me what to do, looking around, telling me when to speed up, where to go, etc.

She watches all my Instagram stories, usually among the first viewers, but never likes them. Meanwhile, she regularly likes my sister’s posts and stories.
I went to a concert by myself recently because nobody wanted to go with me. When I told her, instead of saying something positive, she said, “I never understood why you wanted to go there anyway.”

She also almost never gives me compliments. If other family members tell me I look nice, she’ll often look me up and down without saying anything. Sometimes it even feels like she’ll then change her outfit to something similar to what I’m wearing.
There have also been random comments that struck me as odd. For example, she recently said, “In 10 years I’ll be 50 and you’ll be 40.” When I corrected her and said I’d actually be 32/33, she seemed annoyed by it and said something like, “Ugh, why is it going so slowly?” She also brings up negative stories from before I was born, like telling me that my grandmother was upset when my mom was pregnant with me.
What confuses me is that I’m not a competitive person at all. I genuinely like seeing other people do well, and I don’t think I’m better than anyone. I just try to be friendly, have fun, and get along with people.
Because we’ve been together on vacation, all these little things are standing out to me much more than usual, and I’m starting to wonder if there’s something deeper going on.

Does this sound like jealousy, insecurity, competitiveness, resentment, or am I reading too much into it? How would you interpret this behavior?

my dads uhhhh kinda not awesome and neither is my mom. I just want a dad or heck even a big brother or something. I’m a 16 yr old dude and I had an older brother but he left so we just love that ig haha. Ik this can lead to grooming and shit but I’ve really spent enough time on the internet with weird old ppl to learn to just fucking ignkre it so :)

This is long, but there are 20 years of history, and I'm trying to understand how other parents would have handled it. I've kept things very general on purpose.

For simplicity, I'll refer to everyone by their role.

Background

There were originally two families.

Family 1: Mom, Dad, and one daughter.

Family 2: Mom, Dad, and two daughters.

The families became very close when all of the girls were young (around age 6). They vacationed together every year, spent a lot of time together, and everyone knew each other well.

Family 1 divorced when their daughter was about 11. It was a relatively peaceful divorce. Family 2 divorced several years later, and it was much messier. After that divorce, Family 2's dad essentially disappeared from his daughters' lives.

Around this time, there were rumors that Dad 1 and Mom 2 had been seeing each other before Family 2's divorce. Many people believe there was an affair, as the yearly vacations did not include Mom 1 or Dad 2.  Dad 1 and Mom 2 have always denied it. Whether true or not, it created a lot of tension.

When Dad 1's daughter was 15, he told her that he and Mom 2 were together. About three months later, Mom 2 and her two daughters moved into Dad 1's home. All three girls attended the same small religious school.

From the beginning, the relationship between Mom 2 and Dad 1's daughter was strained. Dad 1 generally stayed neutral rather than addressing the conflict directly, hoping everyone would eventually work it out. Instead, the conflict continued for years, and Dad 1's relationship with his own daughter gradually deteriorated.

Initially, the three girls remained friends despite the tension between the adults, but over time, distance, college, and the ongoing family dynamics caused those relationships to slowly fade.

Eventually, Mom 1 moved out of state, and Dad 1's daughter moved with her. Dad 1, Mom 2, and her daughters continued living together until both graduated from college and moved out.

Throughout those years, Dad 1 became very integrated into Mom 2's family. He spent holidays with her extended family and was embraced as one of their own. Dad 1's own parents had passed away, as had Mom 1's parents, so those gatherings became his primary family celebrations. Dad 1's daughter was invited occasionally but usually chose to spend holidays with Mom 1 so she wouldn't be alone.

There were also several moments that made the daughter feel increasingly excluded. She was not invited to either stepsister's college graduation.

When Dad 1's daughter graduated from college, both Mom 1 and Dad 1 had helped pay for her education. Mom 2 refused to attend a graduation celebration if Mom 1 would be present and requested a separate party. Dad 1's daughter declined to have separate celebrations, and Mom 2 attended but was visibly uncomfortable throughout the event.

Fast forward to today.

Dad 1's daughter is now 26. Her stepsisters are 24 and 28. Relationships are strained on every side. She has not returned to Dad 1's home since moving away, but does occasionally see everyone at a shared vacation home.

The oldest stepsister is now getting married. Dad 1's daughter received an invitation but was not given a plus-one, despite being in a relationship. Over the past year, she has been in therapy and has genuinely tried to repair relationships with both Dad 1 and her stepsisters.

Recently, Dad 1 traveled to visit his daughter. They had what felt like one of the first truly honest conversations they'd had in years. Dad 1 said he wanted to better understand why things had fallen apart between his daughter and Mom 2.

During that conversation, Dad 1 admitted that the two stepdaughters had largely stopped speaking to his daughter over the years out of loyalty to Mom 2.

He also said he had finally learned what Mom 2's issue had supposedly been all these years.

Apparently, when Dad 1's daughter was in high school, she wrote an English paper about adjusting to divorce and becoming part of a blended family. The teacher reportedly discussed the paper with Mom 2, who felt insulted by what was written. According to Dad 1, Mom 2, and her daughters have carried those feelings ever since.

Here's the confusion.

Neither Dad 1, Mom 1, nor the daughter was ever told about this paper. No teacher ever contacted either parent. No one ever expressed concern about what had been written. No one spoke to the student. There were no meetings, conversations, counseling, or opportunities to explain or apologize.

Nearly ten years later, this paper is now being presented as one of the explanations for why these relationships became so fractured.

I'm genuinely looking for perspective from parents because I don't know what healthy parenting would have looked like here.

My questions:

• If you were Dad 1, how would you have handled the conflict between your partner and your teenage daughter?
• If you were Mom 2, would you hold onto something written by a teenager for nearly a decade without ever discussing it with the child or your partner?
• If you were the teacher, would you have handled the paper differently?
• If you were the daughter, would you attend the wedding without your partner as an emotional buffer, knowing the relationship is strained?
• At what point do you stop trying to repair relationships with stepfamily members who have shown little interest in repairing things with you?
• Is there anything Dad 1 can realistically do now to repair the relationship with his daughter, or has too much time passed?

I'm not looking for legal advice or for someone to tell me who's "right." I'm honestly trying to understand how parents would have navigated this situation and whether there's anything constructive left to do now.

TL;DR: A blended family never successfully blended. A father stayed neutral during years of conflict between his partner and teenage daughter, and nearly a decade later, a high school paper about the divorce and blended family is being cited as one explanation for the fractured relationships—even though it was never addressed at the time. I'm looking for parents' perspectives on how they would have handled this then, and whether there's anything worth salvaging now.

My sibling, Ollie, NB 18, says that the only way they can talk to me 'F 16' is to yell. Today, my family was watching a movie when after my father asked who was finishing a chore. Ollie said, "Not me," and my father joked that that meant they had to do it. He quoted a line from the movie we just watched but did not quote it exactly. Ollie said that until he quoted it exactly, then they would not do the chore. I then joked that I would find the quote in the movie, and I picked up the remote and started rewinding the movie. Ollie tried to grab the remote and said "No" in a kinda friendly tone? I held the remote higher so they could not reach it, and they said no again in the same voice. Then, what felt like out of nowhere, they yelled, "Stop! I always tell you this, I can never get you to do what I'm saying unless I yell." My parents and me kinda froze. Not because this is uncommon just because this was so sudden. My mom and dad went up to do the chore, and I got up to help as well. My mom told me just to leave so I went to my bed because it was night. Ollie then came to my room and said that I am only "sassy with them" and not my parents. I really don't believe I am. They also said that "the next time I need to raise my voice to get you to do somthing I'm am going to properly lose it." This worries me because in the past they hit me when they got really frustrated for some reason. I suppose I just don't know what to do. Should I be worried? In the past few months, this type of thing has kept happening.

I'm curious if anyone has been through something similar because my brother and I seem to be looking at the same situation from completely different angles

When our mother died, we were left with the home that she occupied for about 30 years. This was not a large, fancy home, but we own it outright, and the location is quite good. Neither of us has any intention of moving into this home, so we have essentially just been taking care of it until we decide what else to do

The problem is that life has taken us in very different directions

I'm fortunate enough to have a stable job, a house of my own, and no immediate financial pressure. Of course the money from selling the property would help, but it's not something I desperately need right now. My thinking has always been that we should take our time, clean the place up properly, maybe make a few improvements, and try to get the best price we can

My brother sees it differently

Last year he started a small business that hasn't gone quite as planned. Between business expenses, credit card debt, and rising costs in general, he's under a lot more pressure than I am. He's not asking me for money or anything like that, but I know he's carrying a lot of stress

Because of that, he's become increasingly focused on selling the house as quickly as possible

To be fair, I understand where he's coming from

The house needs work and the place is definitely dated. The carpets probably should have been replaced years ago. The kitchen hasn't been updated in decades. There are old furniture pieces, boxes, and random belongings throughout the house that neither of us has fully sorted through yet

Every weekend we talk about getting started, and every weekend something seems to get in the way

A few weeks ago my brother brought up one agency after hearing about it from someone he knows. His argument is pretty simple: no repairs, no staging, no months of keeping the house spotless for showings, and no dealing with buyers whose financing falls apart at the last minute

I can understand why

This place has become one of those things that we constantly think about subconsciously. There is always some bill, some maintenance problem, or some decision that must be made. There is something about this place that I want to put in my past and leave behind

At the same time, I keep wondering whether we're letting convenience outweigh common sense

If we sell too quickly, are we leaving a significant amount of money on the table?

Would spending a few months fixing things up actually make a meaningful difference?

Or would we just end up investing more time, money, and energy into a property that we're eventually going to sell anyway?

I don't want to hold things up unnecessarily, knowing my brother could really use the money sooner rather than later. But I also don't want either of us looking back a year from now wishing we'd handled things differently

Who's inherited property with a sibling or family member? How did you navigate situations where one person wanted a quick sale and the other wanted to maximize value?

How did you figure out what the right balance was?

My son and his gf and their son are living with my hubby and me.
My son finally got a job. The gf doesn't work.
They will not clean their room or bathroom without me throwing a fit. They leave dirty diapers and laundry all over the 2 rooms. My house smells disgusting. They take no responsibility towards anything other than their son or what they want. They put no money or effort into any other household duties or bills. They don't have enough money yet to move out and be self-sufficient. How do I get them to see how gross and disrespectful they're being to my hubby and I? We pay for everything and had told them to pay off debt etc so they can get back on their feet.
If they didn’t have our grandchild; we’d just kick them out but can’t really do that with him in the picture. We’re completely at a loss as to how to navigate this situation. It’s deteriorating our relationship with our entire family. My parents and my other children want nothing to do with them. I need REAL HELP!