A Redditor by the name of dionysus901 wrote that she sent her two sisters, aged 15 and 17, “immediately home” after they were caught following her husband, who was having dinner with a client.
The post has received over 16,800 upvotes and the top comment alone has racked up more than 32,500 upvotes. You can read the original post here.
The post explained: “I told them they had to leave immediately because I could tell my husband was close to exploding and even though they kept begging me to hear them out and to let them stay I wouldn’t.”
A study published in 2020 by Karl Pillemer, a Cornell University professor, found 8 percent of those surveyed had cut contact with a sibling.
Common triggers of family rifts include tensions with in-laws, disputes over money, inheritances and business deals, and value differences and unrealistic expectations.
Each situation, Pillemer said, involves a breakdown of family bonds, typically coupled with poor and increasingly hostile communication.
The Redditor told her father and stepmother that the teens would be heading home early. Her stepmom asked if she could let them stay until the morning so they could catch a daytime flight, but she refused and sent them to the airport immediately.
The poster has since been told she is not welcome into her stepmom’s home, and her sisters don’t want to see her.
She adds: “The reason my husband was so angry is that the client was the one who noticed them taking pictures of them and when he confronted them they were rude to her and to him.”
Newsweek spoke to San Diego-based Positive Parenting Psychologist, Reena B. Patel. She told Newsweek how to amend a relationship with a sibling.
She said: “There is usually a deep yearning to get that relationship back on track, regardless of what tore siblings apart. An agreement can be prolonged by things like underlying competitiveness between the two, pride, hurt, etc.”
“These grievances can be avoided if all of their frustrations are addressed. There can be challenges if both of you have families, usually, spouses get involved and you want to make your spouse aware of that, for example, “I value my sibling’s relationship, I need one-on-one time with her to discuss things.”
“Having that uninterrupted time with your sibling can sometimes improve the relationship immediately, their presence can become your ‘home’, and conversations still need to be held, but at a more sustainable level. Sometimes we don’t take into account what the other is going through. If there is a relationship that has gone sour, each sibling should be aware of what the other is experiencing, and for irreconcilable differences, reaching out, to say you love them is sometimes all you can do.”
What do the comments say?
The top comment said: “Is this possible his client is an attractive woman and they thought he was cheating on you and were trying to gather evidence? This sounds like something 15 and 17-year-old sisters could do, no?”
Another popular comment has received 26,700 upvotes, it said: “Maybe husband was about to explode because he was about to lose a big client??? Jfc men and women work together all the time, and some people are attractive. Losing certain clients can mean losing thousands upon thousands of dollars. It isn’t a joke. And what those girls did was extremely inappropriate behavior and I can only imagine that the client was probably pissed off and possibly not interested in working any longer with the husband’s company. Because personally if that happened to me, I would’ve been beyond insulted and completely cut ties with him and his company. If anytime an attractive person is working with another one it’s a reason to stalk them, we’ll that’s insanely inappropriate.”
Another wrote: “I find it funny though how everyone is saying you’re the asshole because there might have been cheating. I’d say YTA based on the fact that unless everyone here is rich all these last-minute flight changes sound stupidly expensive and like a costly and unfair punishment.”
Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.
