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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

My sister wrote a letter about me to the guardian.....

338 replies

FergusSingsTheBlues · 25/01/2015 08:10

It got published. It was full of wild accusations and assumptions and was really unfair.

I only just found out.

She's pretty much permanently depressed so I cant really go mad, but I'm so hurt I really don't want much to do with her. I'm had a go at her yesterday, shouted at her for the first time ever, then ended up consoling her over a cup of tea. I always suck up this sort of thing. And we've always been really close....I thought.

To make things worse, she told my best friend who couldn't face telling me so it's double humiliation. For some reason that's made me much more upset.

I'm mortified because anybody who knows me will have read it as all my friends read the guardian....

What do I do now?

OP posts:
Branleuse · 25/01/2015 10:09

shes dropped you though hasnt she.

I was golden child and my brother always hated me for it. Dont blame him really. Thats what happens.

I however got very very tired of walking on eggshells and pretending, and now we never see each other. I dont hate him, nor do i feel any love for him. Just happy that hes getting on with his own life.

TendonQueen · 25/01/2015 10:10

I think your sister may have told someone she'd had the letter published. Unless it was very specific and obviously identifiable, there would always be an element of doubt. Could your sister have 'let this out' to friend who then felt she had to tell you?

I don't think pursuing a right of reply would help - it just puts you on the same level. I would consider contacting the editor though and pointing out that you were identifiable from this, and they should have edited the letter more carefully to guard against that, and ask for them to respond. I would keep your distance from your sister in the meantime and say to people who know that you would prefer to talk to her as opposed to publishing your feelings in a newspaper, but you're not ready to do that yet.

BathtimeFunkster · 25/01/2015 10:10

No idea why you'd get involved with someone else's family stuff.

It's not "family" stuff if it's been published in the newspaper.

It's now public stuff.

And the subject of the public venting, if recognisable, has a right to know what has been published about them.

Branleuse · 25/01/2015 10:10

stop inviting her round, and if she asks why, say that youve seen her vitriolic letter in the guardian saying that she doesn't have a sister.

Also remember your parents really did a number on you both with their bloody issues.

They fuck you up your mum and dad

Kvetch15 · 25/01/2015 10:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:12

It takes a shit stirrer to think oh look that must be x I'm emailing it.

What good would come of that.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:13

Exactly Kvetch. People rant on here all the time.

TalkingintheDark · 25/01/2015 10:15

Hm. I'm in two minds over this.

Of course it was a dreadful, dreadful thing to do and must have caused you massive hurt, and as others have said, she's totally misdirected her blame and anger, which should really be aimed at your mother.

But... Having been the scapegoat child myself, for whom absolutely nothing went right for a very long time, I can't help but feel a shred of sympathy for her. And while I know you recognise the fucked up-ness of your family dynamics, I wonder how far you can really grasp just how much damage it's done to her, and how hopeless her life seems/actually is?

You talk about some things being her choice - but do you realise how much your choices can be limited by emotional abuse in childhood? It's hard to "choose" a healthy relationship for example when you've been groomed by a parent to be attracted to/comfortable with emotional abuse.

And it's hard to "choose" a well paying, decent career when your self esteem is in the toilet. It's even hard just to make positive heathy choices of any kind for yourself when you've been taught from earliest infancy by the person you loved and trusted and depended on the most and who was supposed to care for you that you're worthless and don't deserve the same love your sister does. It sounds like your mother did a really good job of sabotaging your sister's life adult life before it had even begun.

Added to that, the two things you acknowledge she has absolutely no choice over - infertility and not being loved by her mother - are two incredibly painful, difficult things for anyone to deal with even if they have everything else in place. Which she doesn't.

The thing is, I think you might be sending out some pretty confusing mixed messages to her. On the one hand, you love her and recognise that she's been through some real shit. On the other hand, I'm not sure you really recognise how much all this has affected her, I sense some kind of cognitive dissonance in the way you talk about her. As if you're pretending somehow that you two are on a level playing field, and that there is real equality in your relationship.

But there isn't. You're the princess and she's the pauper. There's you, with your happy marriage, DH with the 6 figure salary, two wonderful children and the love of your mother.

And there's her with her crap partner, no money, and her dreams of being a mother not coming true, maybe never coming true. And she still doesn't have the love of your mother.

Seriously, if you were the "pauper" in this scenario, would you find it easy to be so involved in the "princess"s life? How much strength do you think it must take to be so close to someone who's got everything you want but haven't got? How much must it grind away at your on a daily basis? And don't forget, she's had this all her life, it started when you were children.

Lastly, how do you handle the relationship with your parents now? Do you take her side? Have you ever told your mother that she was/is wrong to favour you over your sister? Would you take that risk for her? You have, after all, benefited from your mother's favouritism, even though obviously you didn't cause or choose it, and your sister has been correspondingly damaged by it. Would you be prepared to do something to even the balance? I don't mean like giving her money because that's just a sticking plaster, I mean like actually rocking the boat of the whole family dynamic. Because as the privileged golden child, you have the power to do that, whereas she doesn't.

I can see this situation must be very, very hard for you too. I've been there with the sleepless nights and the lack of holidays and the exhaustion that is parenting, and it's only reasonable that you occasionally want to vent about all that to someone you're very close to. I can see how it would be so hard to have to try and censor yourself all the time.

But I've also been very, very close to where your sister is now, and believe me, to hear someone who in your eyes has the perfect life moaning about it to you when they know how little you've got - OMG, it galls. (Btw am not implying that you go round constantly moaning about your life to your sister, just taking it from that one remark about the holiday; I am sure you don't constantly rub her nose in it! But just being near you would be like having her nose rubbed in it, tbh, and that is why I can understand her having a massive reaction to that one remark.)

Anyway... This touched a bit of a nerve for me...! Bottom line, I think both of you need to direct your anger at your mother (and possibly enabling father?) for creating this dynamic in the first place and causing this divide between you and the sister you love so much. And ask yourself this: would you have the life you have now if your mother had adored your sister and not you?

diddl · 25/01/2015 10:16

"What good would come of that."

to stop someone being taken for a mug & wise up to someone else's true thoughts about them?

BathtimeFunkster · 25/01/2015 10:16

If I saw a letter about my friend in the newspaper that was supposedly anonymous, I would definitely tell them.

I would expect any decent human who knew me to do likewise.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:17

People express their upset all over the internet, it is wildly exaggerated. Here is no different to the guardian. It's all online publishing. Just leave it where it is.

Ohmygrood · 25/01/2015 10:20

Your list of reasons for her resentment of you really shocked me in the way that you have almost casually listed the shocking situation regarding your mother.

'I have a very happy marriage. Her is not happy at all.

My mother adored me growing up. But not her.

I graduated and have a lucrative career. She dropped out.'

I'm not being at all critical of you and excusing what she did, but could there be a family dynamic where you have somehow been conditioned by your upbringing to view her as the 'problem' family member?

BathtimeFunkster · 25/01/2015 10:27

Here is different to the guardian, this poison pen letter was published in the newspaper too.

Also it was commissioned by the paper, which is different from a thread started on a forum. The legal responsibility is different.

Finally the readership of the guardian is much higher, so it's public in a different way.

Starting a spiteful, venting thread on Mumsnet about someone who can be identified is really shit behaviour too.

But going to the paper is a whole 'nother level of being a cunt.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:29

Is the readership of those letters higher? no idea. I've never read one, until now.

They sound like the guardian emulating blogs etc where people get to vent whenever they want.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:30

And places like here.

Kvetch15 · 25/01/2015 10:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:34

agree

TheyLearnedFromBrian · 25/01/2015 10:50

The one thing that stands out for me is that this is your sister's level of love, loyalty, respect, care for you. Her sister, her support.

She may well have did what she did as a result of being in a dark place, but the bottom line is, she was willing to do something like this to you. And knows - and therefore must have been aware at the time - what a shitty thing to do it was - she now regrets it - but she did it. The urge to hurt you to scratch her own itch won out.

This is the person you say is your son's favourite relative. He'd be devastated if you cut contact. So, he is heavily emotionally invested in her.

If, as you say, you love your son more than you dislike anyone else, THIS is the reason I would severely, severely limit contact.

It seems like the only 'power' your sister feels she has is to be able to use the love you have for her to manipulate. Yes, you have it all, but she can still bring you down and make you miserable with one action, if she chooses! See! She has power too!

Can you now honestly say that she would hold your son's wellbeing sacred enough to never treat him badly?

I don't think so.

I feel terribly sorry for her. I wouldn't cut contact. But I would now approach the relationship with my first and most important consideration being to change the level of relationship I allowed with my children. I would want to protect them by making sure that they were distanced enough from her to not be devastated if they weren't around at some point. To make sure that her views and actions were not influential enough in their lives to make them vulnerable to this loose cannon. I would want to work to stop her being your son's 'favourite relative'.

She has indeed bitten the hand that feeds her. And as a mother, you won't take the risk of your children being bitten next.

BathtimeFunkster · 25/01/2015 10:50

The guardian doesn't get to emulate self publishing, because it is a newspaper.

That was a commissioned article, it is nothing like a blog.

And even bloggers are not allowed to libel people.

IAmNotAPrincessIAmAKahleesi · 25/01/2015 10:50

Maybe the letter to the paper was how she really feels about you and the way she is with you irl is the fiction, in which case you owe her nothing

All of those things that are wrong in her life are terrible but none of them are your fault, by blaming you and always being the victim she is showing you she doesn't feel the same way as you do about your relationship

If it were me I would be cutting contact, maybe that's even what she wants and isn't brave enough to do. I know you say she is close to your son and that makes things more complicated but she sounds like such a negative influence, can you be sure she won't be resentful and bitter towards him too as he grows up?

TheyLearnedFromBrian · 25/01/2015 10:51

if she wasn't around at some point

BathtimeFunkster · 25/01/2015 10:52

Yes, very much agree with TheyLearned.

MarshaBrady · 25/01/2015 10:52

I'm sure they have the legal nous to cover whatever it is they are doing.

Commissioned makes it sound like they request letters from specific people.

HootyMcTooty · 25/01/2015 10:54

If the letter was so falsified how did so many people identify you in it? Does the truth hurt maybe?

You talk about her being the unfavoured child, like it's something she needs to just get over, but it's not that simple. You sound so condescending about your sister, like her whole life is a total fuck up because she makes poor choices, whilst congratulating yourself on your wonderful choices. Well, I sincerely hope, if you suffer a downfall one day, your sister will be more compassionate than it sounds like you have been. From what I can see your wise choices in life seem to stem from marrying a rich man and being fertile. Well done. Remember your happy home life could be taken from you in an instant, your wealth can be lost in an instant, would you feel better than her then? I would guess yes you would. It sounds like you've been raised to notice only her bad points and see only your good points and you seem to have no inclination to change that.

I also don't see the difference between writing to The Guardian and posting on MN. You're both as bad as each other on that score.

Strippyquilt · 25/01/2015 10:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.