Feeling overlooked for many years by his parents, a man could no longer ignore their behavior. He took to Reddit to open up about his situation. Birthdays, graduations, even the smallest of victories—his parents always found a way to highlight his sister instead.
This is his story
I have a sister who is six years older than me. My parents have canceled on me last minute countless times because of my sister.
If I have a basketball game, they’ll say, “Oops, sorry, your sister doesn’t feel like going out.” When I graduated, they said, “Oops, sorry, your sister had a bad day at work.” They have missed both major milestones and smaller events in my life because of her meltdowns.
When I met the love of my life, we decided to tie the knot. From the beginning, I expressed my worries to my parents that my sister might ruin another special moment in my life. My mom assured me over and over again it would not happen.
On the day of my wedding, I received a voicemail from my mom saying they couldn’t come because my sister’s dog was sick, and she was upset. I was heartbroken, but my best man is a bit of a jokester. He took my phone and asked my fiancée if he could post a video of our wedding as a gift on social media. She loved the idea.
I had no idea about it until we came home. Our honeymoon was at a lakeside cabin with no cell service.
The post’s caption read, “My best friend. He is an amazing person, even if his parents NEVER showed up for him.” The video consisted of still pictures of us, often next to her parents, me on the dance floor, cutting the cake—times where you would normally see both parents in wedding pictures. The audio behind the video was my mom’s voicemail explaining how they couldn’t come because my sister’s dog was sick.
When we returned home a week later, I found hundreds of messages. Family members from both sides insisted I take the post down. My sister hadn’t stopped crying. My mom was refusing to leave the house.
Maybe I was the jerk here. I didn’t take the video down immediately upon receiving their messages. I didn’t call my family back right away either. I waited until my vacation time was over and I had enjoyed my time with my wife in our new home before contacting anyone.
My dad told me to take down the video, saying it was “just a bad night for them” and that they would make it up to me and my wife for not coming. My reply was, “How do you plan to ‘make up’ my wedding? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. You chose to ignore my feelings on the whole matter.”
He just repeated that they would make it up to me. I told him I would take the video down only when they made up for missing my wedding. Flustered, we both hung up the phone before we said things we shouldn’t have.
