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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not give a shit that she didn’t like her present?

99 replies

CardoMondo · 25/12/2020 12:30

My sister is 13 years younger than me. She’s a brat, always has been. Completely helpless and spoilt to ridiculous levels. She’s 27 now and still treated like a child. She never gets me. Christmas or birthday present and only occasional makes me a card out of printer paper folded in half. I’m not bothered ... at least I wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for the expectation that I go out of my way for her.

One year I didn’t buy her a birthday present (but did get her a card which is more than she got me that year.) all hell broke lose and my mum kicked off saying I was out of order etc!!

So for Christmas this year I got her a calendar with dogs on it with all the money raised going to a dog rescue charity. She got me nothing.

Apparently she was upset my the present as dogs are “my” thing, not hers. I really don’t care one bit! I only bought it to support the charity and to say I’d got her “something”

AIBU

OP posts:
Arthersleep · 25/12/2020 15:19

This sounds very bitter, esp for a Christmas Day post. And childish. You're 40 years old and still act like this? You both sound like brats to be honest.

Bluntness100 · 25/12/2020 15:23

Honestly you sound as immature as you say she is. You clearly dislike her, and I suspect are quite envious and bitter about her. Just stop pretending, don’t buy her any gift, instead of getting something passive aggressive ant then being all chuffed with yourself about it.

You’re a forty year old woman. Time to grow up.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 25/12/2020 15:38

@Bluntness100

Honestly you sound as immature as you say she is. You clearly dislike her, and I suspect are quite envious and bitter about her. Just stop pretending, don’t buy her any gift, instead of getting something passive aggressive ant then being all chuffed with yourself about it.

You’re a forty year old woman. Time to grow up.

I agree. Also why go along with it for so many years? Sounds like you want to be a martyr.
BloggersBlog · 25/12/2020 16:01

Also why go along with it for so many years? Sounds like you want to be a martyr.

This

prawntoastie · 25/12/2020 16:06

One year I didn’t buy her a birthday present (but did get her a card which is more than she got me that year.) all hell broke lose and my mum kicked off saying I was out of order etc!!

I think your mum has a lot to do with her attitude, so what if you didn't get her anything for her birthday, its not a must to get someone a present

Gettingthereslowly2020 · 25/12/2020 16:14

Buy her a small empty gift box next year, stuff it with tissue paper so she thinks there's something in it haha

In all seriousness, don't buy her anything at all next time. If she complains or your mum complains, so what? She's a grown adult who clearly doesn't value present giving so why should you?

Cocomarine · 25/12/2020 16:14

A bit cheeky, as it’s just my curiosity... but I do wish that posters like this would explain what the (idiots) say when they simply ask, “why is it a problem, what I got, when she didn’t get me anything?”

I love the response about swapping 🙂

TheClitterati · 25/12/2020 16:21

My sister is 15 years younger. Now late 30's. Has very well paid job. Never bought me a present. Still she doesn't gripe about what I do or don't give her.

WhatKatyDidNxt · 25/12/2020 16:32

@Judashascomeintosomemoney Grin

It’s disturbing that your parents let her carry out like this, at her age as well. YANBU she’s being a brat. Next year l vote get her nothing

Tistheseason17 · 25/12/2020 16:43

YANBU!! Your parents are to blame

grassisjeweled · 25/12/2020 17:16

Why am I not surprised cats are her thing?

wizzywig · 25/12/2020 17:22

Was it a typo and she is 2.7yrs?

coldwaterfeed · 25/12/2020 17:27

How is OP as bad as the spoilt brat?!

mbosnz · 25/12/2020 17:32

How about telling your Mum, 'look Mum, I get it. You look at x, and see your little baby girl. Well I don't. I and pretty much everyone else in the world, looks at x and sees an over indulged, spoiled, petulant woman child. I'm not enabling or faciiltating either one of you any more'.

At least you'd be giving her good reason to kick off at you, lol.

IMNOTSHOUTING · 25/12/2020 17:33

@CardoMondo

Well, cats are her thing and to be fair she would probably have liked a cat calendar ... but I was more interested in supporting my chosen charity lol
Well if she always bought you thoughtful gifts that would be unreasonable of you as it is she's a selfish cow.
JacobMarley · 25/12/2020 17:35

Why don't you say I didn't really like what you got me either, shall we swap

Yes. Either that or “Let’s not do presents for each other and buy something we like for ourselves instead”.

perfectstorm · 25/12/2020 17:37

I thinkyou have a DM problem, OP, and not a DSis one.

IMO you need to point out to your mother that DSis is now pushing 30, well and truly an adult and not a child, and that as you're both adults, where are your presents and cards? When she was little, and you were grown up, fair enough, but now? You could always ask if she's aware that now DSis has grown up the expectation's stopped being age approproriate and morphed into inadvertent favouritism, and she compounds that by seeking to police your relationship with your sister to her benefit and your detriment.

IMO the odd row can clear the air and shift things in better directions, in an otherwise calm and non-confrontational relationship, as long as you don't get into mud-slinging, or say unfair things that can't be taken back.

My DH's parents treated him as a small child well into his 30s. Would turn up at workplaces to take fricking photos! Would email him, imperiously telling him to provide his CV so they could consider how to improve it. My especial favourite was when they said he needed to 'make his case' on why uPVC windows weren't a good idea for our Victorian terrace, instead of sashes. Our house. And while it was kind of them to want to pay for new windows, the way it was framed - an announcement that we we going to have windows they chose to put in, and we weren't even asked - took my breath away. At the time, DH wasn't yet seeing it as weird and we had a row because he was worried refusal would upset them. (I said devaluing our house would upset me, and he lived with me, so who did he most want to upset!) But over time, as he took on more and more responsibility at work and we had our own kids, he started to find it grating and then genuinely unbearable, and constant tactful managing of this so that they didn't actually know what was happening in his life, and couldn't take charge, beyond his patience.

He pushed it one year to a confrontation, which was bloody horrible, frankly, but since then, he has been ever closer to his dad and step--mum, both of whom now treat him as the grown man (his stepmum always having thought their attitude to him really weird, it turned out), and less and less close to his mum, who still seems to feel personally betrayed that he had the effrontery to grow up. But she doesn't try to control him any more, either, because he made it clear he wouldn't tolerate it, and held that line through a year when she wouldn't talk to him at all. She had no option but acceptance. Now, they have a much better relationship, in truth, though she probably won't see it that way. He doesn't dread seeing her, or resent her, as he did.

Family dynamics suit people, so they push back on any attempt to alter them. If you want this one to change, you need to be calm, dispassionate, and very clear: there are two adult women, no children, and you are expected to cater to the other while the other is not expected to consider you at all. That's ridiculous, unfair, and wrong.

Being PA and silently resentful won't shift this. Being calm, adult and consistent in refusing to accept this lunacy and just disengaging will. It's amazing how fast people adapt to new status quos when there's no alternative, and to be fair to your sister she's probably never stopped to think about it from any viewpoint than your mum's. She's been brought up in this role, with this expectation, and if you calmly point out that if two adult women are in the picture then the rational position is mutuality, either gifting one another or not at all, then a penny may drop for her. And if it does, you can have a better relationship.

Right now, your mother has set up a dynamic that's guaranteed to breed dislike and resentment, and you're the only person who has any chance of shifting that because it suits everyone else too well to stay in role... your sister loses any hope of a genuine relationship with you of course, but that's a hidden cost, right now.

MustardMitt · 25/12/2020 17:41

@Viviennemary

It's a grim present to give anybody. Bug she got you nothing. Sounds like you're both as bad as each other.
Grim HmmGrin. A calendar. Is grim.

How do you get by day to day when everything causes such a strong emotional reaction?

@CardoMondo YANBU of course. What a baby. A selfish baby.

BloggersBlog · 25/12/2020 17:56

Calling something grim is a "strong emotional reaction"??!

Sheesh, I hope we dont know each other in RL - you will think I am psychotic then when I stub my toe and yell "ow"

MustardMitt · 25/12/2020 18:51

Ok, I was trying not to say ‘how bloody ridiculous to call a calendar “grim”’ but wanted to stay lighthearted.

I might use ‘grim’ as of humour to describe your response to my post though (kidding Wink)

To not give a shit that she didn’t like her present?
MrsCBY · 27/12/2020 12:42

@perfectstorm

I thinkyou have a DM problem, OP, and not a DSis one.

IMO you need to point out to your mother that DSis is now pushing 30, well and truly an adult and not a child, and that as you're both adults, where are your presents and cards? When she was little, and you were grown up, fair enough, but now? You could always ask if she's aware that now DSis has grown up the expectation's stopped being age approproriate and morphed into inadvertent favouritism, and she compounds that by seeking to police your relationship with your sister to her benefit and your detriment.

IMO the odd row can clear the air and shift things in better directions, in an otherwise calm and non-confrontational relationship, as long as you don't get into mud-slinging, or say unfair things that can't be taken back.

My DH's parents treated him as a small child well into his 30s. Would turn up at workplaces to take fricking photos! Would email him, imperiously telling him to provide his CV so they could consider how to improve it. My especial favourite was when they said he needed to 'make his case' on why uPVC windows weren't a good idea for our Victorian terrace, instead of sashes. Our house. And while it was kind of them to want to pay for new windows, the way it was framed - an announcement that we we going to have windows they chose to put in, and we weren't even asked - took my breath away. At the time, DH wasn't yet seeing it as weird and we had a row because he was worried refusal would upset them. (I said devaluing our house would upset me, and he lived with me, so who did he most want to upset!) But over time, as he took on more and more responsibility at work and we had our own kids, he started to find it grating and then genuinely unbearable, and constant tactful managing of this so that they didn't actually know what was happening in his life, and couldn't take charge, beyond his patience.

He pushed it one year to a confrontation, which was bloody horrible, frankly, but since then, he has been ever closer to his dad and step--mum, both of whom now treat him as the grown man (his stepmum always having thought their attitude to him really weird, it turned out), and less and less close to his mum, who still seems to feel personally betrayed that he had the effrontery to grow up. But she doesn't try to control him any more, either, because he made it clear he wouldn't tolerate it, and held that line through a year when she wouldn't talk to him at all. She had no option but acceptance. Now, they have a much better relationship, in truth, though she probably won't see it that way. He doesn't dread seeing her, or resent her, as he did.

Family dynamics suit people, so they push back on any attempt to alter them. If you want this one to change, you need to be calm, dispassionate, and very clear: there are two adult women, no children, and you are expected to cater to the other while the other is not expected to consider you at all. That's ridiculous, unfair, and wrong.

Being PA and silently resentful won't shift this. Being calm, adult and consistent in refusing to accept this lunacy and just disengaging will. It's amazing how fast people adapt to new status quos when there's no alternative, and to be fair to your sister she's probably never stopped to think about it from any viewpoint than your mum's. She's been brought up in this role, with this expectation, and if you calmly point out that if two adult women are in the picture then the rational position is mutuality, either gifting one another or not at all, then a penny may drop for her. And if it does, you can have a better relationship.

Right now, your mother has set up a dynamic that's guaranteed to breed dislike and resentment, and you're the only person who has any chance of shifting that because it suits everyone else too well to stay in role... your sister loses any hope of a genuine relationship with you of course, but that's a hidden cost, right now.

Excellent, truthful post, perfectstorm. Gets to the heart of the problem.
hardboiledeggs · 27/12/2020 17:54

Think it’s time to sit your mum down and tell her that your sister is pushing 30 and is not a child, if she refuses get you anything, you won’t be buying for her. I’d start telling people about her behaviour as well.

Calmandmeasured1 · 27/12/2020 18:14

Why don't you say I didn't really like what you got me either, shall we swap?
😆😆😆

partyatthepalace · 27/12/2020 19:15

@LuckyAmy1986

Why don't you say I didn't really like what you got me either, shall we swap?
Ha. This.
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