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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Starting to resent my sister VENT

16 replies

metnums · 04/09/2019 10:48

This is my first post - sorry it's a long story

So my younger sister has been living with us for about a year and a half. She moved not long after I lost my firstborn daughter to stillbirth. I can't exactly remember the circumstances but I believe DH went along with it because he wanted someone who could keep me company sometimes and look after me. In return she gets to live in an area close to her work and uni in a well-maintained home.

She moved straight from a dysfunctional unhappy home living with my parents, aunt and two siblings. My gripe is that it's been a year and a half, I have since given birth to another child who is now 7 weeks. I am starting to resent my sister's presence in the house.

She has started paying us nominal amount as board but I feel like she treats DH and me as room mates or alternatively as parents. For example she would often sit around with us in the evenings after DH gets home from work. DH jokes that she is the "third wheel" and hints that we need time together as a couple until she leaves.

She has a habit of sitting really close to me and doesn't seem to understand I need a little space. She will park herself in my home office when I'm trying to work without realising that I need to be alone.

Every time I ask her to do things around the house I feel like she thinks she's doing me a favour and will say that she is very busy with uni and work and doing her bit around the house is way down on her priority list. It's always an awkward conversation which isn't helped by my feelings of extreme guilt that I should do everything for her (I've been conditioned by my parents to act as the surrogate mother to their many children).

It's only recently that I've realised that I didn't need to have her dinner ready every evening and that it was okay to expect her to cook for herself. I even paid for her driving lessons for some time but had to stop because I can no longer afford that.

She has no solid plan to leave and mentions vague plans about how she will go on exchange in the next two years.

She does do stuff around the house now and then and has been a great help with the baby but honestly my feeling is that I'd prefer to have our little home with just my little family. I'm really grateful to have had her and for the things she does but sometimes I'm just angry seeing her potter around in our tiny home - it just makes me extremely claustrophobic. DH feels the same way but like me feels responsible for her.

For now I'm working through this by making a list of chores I expect her to do in her own time once a week but if she left I'm not sure I'd miss her that much. I feel so much more protective of my family unit now and I just don't have any energy to devote to looking after my family anymore. AIBU?

OP posts:
metnums · 04/09/2019 10:52

*as in I want to just worry about my husband and baby not my side of the family and their ongoing problems

OP posts:
Templetonstunafish · 04/09/2019 10:52

Why don't you give her reasonable notice that you need the space back? Just say the house feels too small now with the baby. She can rent a room in a houseshare like any other student.

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 04/09/2019 10:52

Why are you not able to just tell her this?

You don't have to be unkind, just sit down and have a conversation about her plans, and tell her that it's not a permanent situation - she needs to start looking for somewhere else to live. Why do you feel so guilty? You should be encouraging her to be independent if she's at Uni.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 04/09/2019 10:53

Not unreasonable at all. Was there no time frame on this living situation when she moved in?
I personally think its time for her to make plans to move out- set a date she has to be gone by. You have a brand new baby, I dont think its fair to have an overgrown teenager in your house to, family or not. Also very unfair on your OH.

sleepwhenidie · 04/09/2019 10:54

Sounds like the chores issue is just making your resentment worse, forget them and rip the plaster off the real issue ASAP-you want your home to yourself, which is absolutely reasonable. You need to tell her, give her a month to find somewhere, she’s an adult, she will have to deal with it. Help her look if necessary. Don’t end up looking back on this time with new baby with regret and resentment.

Windydaysuponus · 04/09/2019 10:55

Suggest she makes plans to have her own place after the new year.
Or sooner if you wish.
Your house, you decide op.

Mummyoflittledragon · 04/09/2019 11:06

It sounds as if you’ve been surrogate mum to your sister. That’s lovely. But she needs to strike out on her own now that you have your baby .

It sounds as if your house is pretty small. Will there even be space for her when your baby moves into their own room?

metnums · 04/09/2019 11:08

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

I'm afraid to have that conversation because I think she might take it badly and interpret it as me not caring about her. She's a nice girl but she's really emotionally fragile for a 22-year-old. I'm protective of her because we all had a really crap upbringing and I guess I felt like it was my job to undo some of that and give her a stable home.

She sees my husband as a father figure and the thought of her being in pain and feeling rejected by us is unbearable for me. I also have a lot of anxiety about how she's going to cope in the big bad world because she hasn't got a lot of common sense. I'm babying her less and less now but don't want to throw her in the deep end.

OP posts:
metnums · 04/09/2019 11:11

@OnlyFoolsnMothers
@sleepwhenidie

Thanks - I feel like a monster having these thoughts. She helped us a lot during a tough time and we both don't want her to think we don't appreciate it.

My husband has been a saint about it all. Of course he would rather have the place to ourselves but he also thinks we shouldn't kick her out until she goes on exchange. It's just that it's at least a year away and I don't know if I can handle her for that long.

OP posts:
sleepwhenidie · 04/09/2019 11:36

Think of it another way-you aren’t doing her any favours enabling her to stay acting like a teenager. Unless you want her with you forever (or being similarly dependent on someone else, which still isn’t likely to end well), will have to stand on her own two feet at some point. You can still support her without having her live with you. Flowers

ArcheryAnnie · 04/09/2019 11:48

It's OK to sit down with her and talk to her about the future, including saying that you will need the space back - and that in the meantime, as a busy adult, living with other busy adults, she will have to take her fair share of the household jobs. Not as a favour to you, but because she is an adult and needs to act like one.

steppemum · 04/09/2019 11:48

You are worrying that she will take it badly, and she may, but that doesn't mean you have to continue as it is.

I would sit down with her and say how much you love her, and want to be there for her, but that sometimes loving people means havign hard conversations.
Right now, with small baby etc, you are finding it hard to have a full house. It is hard enough to parent a baby without parenting an adult as well. As part of your love and support for her, you want to help her plan for the future, and that includes looking at how she moves to more independent living.

Before that though, I would have a think about what you do feel you can offer, and what you can't. Would it be good to sugegst she comes to stay for one weekend per month, or is that too much? I think that including a concrete plan for her coninued relationship with you is a good idea. An stressing that if she is in trouble etc you will be there for her. (or not?)

Have a timeline in mind, by Christmas, By end of October?
Have a plan for how much help

  • eg the once a month thing
Have a plan for ongoing contact

If she takes it the wrong way, give her a bit of space, a few days and then sit er down again and say - it hasn't disappeared, we still need to talk about the future, and go again.

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 04/09/2019 12:28

Think of it another way-you aren’t doing her any favours enabling her to stay acting like a teenager

I know you feel responsible for her, which goes to show that you care about and love her. But I also agree with the above; she won't gain any common sense by being wrapped in common wool. Maybe encourage her to find a flatshare nearby so you can stay in close touch with her?

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 04/09/2019 12:29
  • cotton wool, not common wool! Sorry!
metnums · 04/09/2019 13:31

It's true I don't want to enable her but I can't help but worry when she says things like "my stripper friend said I'd be really good at it and I should come to her work place to check it out" Hmm

Apparently she could use the money. And this was said before I got her to start paying us board.

OP posts:
steppemum · 04/09/2019 14:05

you can't stop her making silly decision. Give her sensible advice, and then you have to let her live her own life. She may do the stripper thing. She may not. It is not up to you. As I said, give her advice and support, and then you have to let go and understand she is responsible for her own decisions, she is an adult.

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