Reddit Stories - ABANDONED by Sister, Raised Three Nieces and Nephews, Now REWARDED for SACRIFICE_

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #siblings #family #parenting #sacrifice #rewardSummary:A Reddit user shares their story of being abandoned by their sister, stepping up to raise their three nieces and nephews, and the challenges and rewards that came with it.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, siblings, family, parenting, sacrifice, reward, nieces, nephews, abandoned, raised, challenges, familylove, caregiving, lifelessons, overcoming, supportBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Brought up my privileged sibling as three children after she deserted them. Now, they are compensating me as a gesture of gratitude, yet she is enraged and requesting the compensation. Greetings, it is I, 48F, and I have a younger sister, Diana, 46F. Diana never really got along well when we were kids. She was always too pretentious and kind of mean to me and so, parted ways as soon as we had high school. I chose to go to that. She decided to move in with her boyfriend at the time.

It's a good thing that her boyfriend was rich since our parents would never have been able to afford the rent to let her live on her own. But she had made it very clear to our parents that she had no interest in knowing their opinions on her life and was going to do whatever she wanted. So my parents never tried to stop her either and just let her run free. She had twin girls at 20 and then a boy at 21 while she was living with her boyfriend, and my parents were happy. for her, but at the same time, it was kind of concerning because now, she had a lot of responsibilities and no job. She was completely and fully reliant on her boyfriend, money, and maintaining her lifestyle. Diana never got married to her boyfriend and I think it was a bad move because at least then, she would have been entitled to alimony after they broke up. They had to go separate ways

after Diana found out that he had been cheating on her. Thankfully, he did give her child's support that she was entitled to. However, he chose to opt out of being a father and signed away his parental rights. The girls were both three years old at the time, so they were really young and my nephew was just two years old. After that, my sister was completely on her own and she needed to get all the help that she could to be able to support herself. Now, I did not have a good relationship with her, but because of my parents, I decided to help her out. At the time I earned a decent amount of money. It was not enough to support all four of them, but I could at least contribute a small amount of money every month, along with my parents, and they got by the first

few months. It was really difficult to find her since she did not have a degree and had no experience either. She had to start at the bottom and work her way up, which would require her to devote quite a lot of time to her jobs if she wanted to make progress quickly. But that would be difficult because she had to think about her children as well and she couldn't just leave them at home. She could hire a babysitter, but that was pretty expensive so she had to rely on me or on her friends. Our parents were also working, they were contributing to her as well, so they couldn't stay home and it was the same for me. She didn't have any friends either, who would be okay with watching her kids while she was away at work. Since all of them had their

own lives and jobs, none of them took such a responsibility. So, she was kind of stuck in minimum wage jobs so she could adjust her hours accordingly and come back home quickly, so she wouldn't have to pay the babysitter to stay with her kids for too long because then, the cost of that would be exorbitant, and she would not be able to afford it. This went on for a couple of years, and I guess Diana started resending her own children. Because they were standing in the way of her success, and according to her, they were the only factors holding her back. I would visit her occasionally, not for her sake, but for the children's sake, because I wanted to make sure that they were doing all right. I did not have a good relationship with her, but I was not heartless

enough to let a bunch of innocent kids suffer the consequences of their mother's terrible decisions. So my parents and I would regularly check up on the children and they would always be complaining about how badly Diana was treating them. She would scold them for little things and lash out at them just being kids and trying to have fun. It was just a miserable existence for all of them and I I wished that I could help them and pull them out of that house and keep them with me, but I couldn't do that, since she was the rightful parent and I had right over them. Besides, she was getting child support from her ex and was doing her best to make ends meet. I kind of felt bad for her as well, but I felt worse for the children.

However, things were pretty bad because, after that, she started seeing other men as well. And every time a relationship would not work out, she would start blaming her kids for it. Apparently, in her head, she believed that her boyfriend would always break up with her once they found out that she was the mother to three kids. I personally think it was because she would never say anything about it on the first couple of dates and she would just bring it down with them after they had been together for a month or two. And I think that's a really long time to keep a secret like that. When you are a single mother, I think you need to be upfront about it.

Otherwise, it just seems dishonest and kind of weird. and I tried to explain that to her many times, but she was really convinced that she was getting broken up with only because of the fact that she had children. And she would keep tormenting them about it, reminding them again and again how their father had abandoned her, and she would keep threatening to leave them behind as well if they did not behave themselves, so they were really scared of her and the childhood was constantly just full of their mother's narcissism. This went on for literally years, I'm not even kidding.

several times, it occurred to me that I should probably just take them and run with it. But I couldn't do that and neither could I file for custody of the kids or try to report her because what she was doing, while it was bad, didn't exactly amount to something that could justify having her kids taken away from her. So this just kept going on and they were just thankful that they had me by their side because my parents were too old to be there for them as friends, but I was always there for them, whenever they needed it. They could never go to their mother with their problems and they could always come to their aunt and that's what they did. Any time they would have any sort of

issues with people at school or academics or even Diana, they would come straight to me. And I really liked it, it felt like they trusted me and I valued that. So it was no big surprise that when they turned 18, they decided to leave their mother's house and come live with me instead. Now that they were not legally minors anymore, they could choose to live wherever and with whomever they pleased, so it was me that they chose to live with. Diana was obviously very disappointed about it and had a lot to say like she said that she had wasted 18 years of her life, trying to raise these kids, and in the end, they did not even choose her. She was very nasty about it and told me that if I wanted to raise her kids so badly,

I should have stepped in earlier instead of taking over when they were 18 and the job was mostly done anyway. I so badly wanted to tell her that she hadn't rested, they had pretty much raised themselves because she was always out, either at work or after that, she would be out on dates with other men, who would eventually break up with them when they found out that she was a mother to three kids. And she did not have any sense of what she should prioritize. So obviously it turned out to be this way. The kids chose the person who had actually been there for them over the person who had always tormented them and rebuked them, just because she could not find somebody and she was not happy in her life. It was just that she had never already realized that

she was hurting them, just because she was hurting herself. But I did not want to rub it in her face because I knew that it must have been hurtful for her as well, which is why she was lashing out at me, so I just kept my mouth shut, and that was it. After that, we didn't really have any contact. Her kids decided to cut ties with her and live with me instead. She also decided to part with all of us and stopped speaking to everybody. Even our parents did not have any contact with them, which was strange because they hadn't done anything. I guess the fact that they had not tried to take her side against me when my nieces and nephew chose to move in with me pissed her off

and she cut them off as well. It has been seven years since then and all of them are doing pretty well in life now. I honestly don't know what Diana has been up to, but I know that her kids are doing great. My nephew went to medical school and is now a pediatrician. One of my nieces has a degree in literature and is now a teacher while her twin sister runs her own hair salon. I helped all of them take out loans for the business and I even financed them to the best of my abilities

and I am really proud of them now because they are doing so well in life and have come so far from the kind of home that they used to live in. All of them are living separately now. They only lived with me for four years and even then. It was not exactly them living with me, since they would usually be in college and would only come back occasionally.

I guess I just didn't want to come back to a home where they did not feel wanted. I'm talking about Diana's home. Anyway, it has been two years since all of them moved out and I'm so happy for all of them. I never expected anything in return for any of this because in all honesty, I was only doing this because I thought it was the right thing to do. They were just kids and no matter the kind of bad blood that I had with my sister, I could never be heartless with them.

I had always had a soft corner for all of them since I never had any kids of my own and I never even got married. It was just not my cup of tea personally but for them, I think I wanted to be there as a parental figure because their father was not in the picture and well, we all know what kind of a person Diana was. So they needed somebody and my parents were too old for that job, so I stepped up. That was all that I had done, I never expected anything in return, but I am so glad that they are the kind of kids who think that I deserve a token of appreciation for what I did, even though I don't think that it was something that I need to be compensated for or whatever.

However, about a week ago, I celebrated my 48th birthday. And on my birthday, I obviously invited my friends and my family, including my nieces and my nephew. I had a blast, and my nephew was kind enough to organize everything for me, even though I wanted to pay for everything. He told me that he was going to cover the expenses because now, he was making enough money to do things for me and express his gratitude. After the party was over, the three of them sat me down for a conversation and told me that the three of them had talked it out and now that all of them were financially stable, they wanted to show me how grateful they were and were going to collectively write me a check and show me how grateful they were for everything that I had done for them.

I tried to tell them that it was not required because I'm still working and I can totally financially support myself right now so I don't need this, but they told me that it was not because they wanted to pay off the debt. They were sweet enough to tell me that they would never be able to be able to be a good enough to able to pay off whatever I had done for them because it was a tangible amount. But the kind of support that I had shown them and the faith that I had always had in them, that was not something that they could compensate me for and so, this was a little attempt at trying to express their gratitude. I was really touched by the heartfelt gesture and I decided to post about it on social media.

I just wanted to appreciate them for whatever they were doing for me. My sister and I have not been in touch for the past few years, so I do not think that she would care. Anyway, I was blocked from every platform and I thought that she wouldn't even be able to find that, so I thought it was okay. And honestly, Diana had never bothered to get back in touch with us and try to find out how her children were doing after they had left home. Agreed, it was they who had cut ties with her first and moved in with me so they would be away from her, but that was kind of her own fault. The least that she could have done was express an interest in their life and try to be a mother to them so she would be able to rectify the mistake she had made. But if I'm being honest, she did not seem to care much about the loss of contact and I assumed that she was doing just fine.

Anyway, after that post, I received a message from her a couple of days ago. I was not expecting it because, like I said, for six years, we had not been in touch. But I should have guessed that as soon as she knew that her kids were financially stable, she would come sniffing like a bloodhound to find out exactly how much money she could get out of them. In her message to me, she told me that she had read the post that I had made in now, she wanted to talk to me about her children. She said that she knew she had messed up in the beginning and she had not exactly been a good mother to them the first time around. But now, she felt like she wanted to have a relationship with them. She wanted to give herself another

chance as a mother since she felt like these past six years, she had missed them a lot. I don't know how much truth that statement holds because if she really had missed them, she could have contacted me at least just once. She told me she wants me to talk to her kids and tried to bridge the gap between them since they respond well to me. The timing was nothing less than suspicious. And I chose to ignore that message because I was just really pissed off by what she was trying to do since it was so blatantly obvious. When I did not respond to her message, she called me in the evening and that's when I snapped. She told me that she wanted me to talk to her children and tried to get them back in touch with her again and I told her that I was not going to

do anything of the sort because I knew what she was trying to do. And I was fully aware that she was only after them for the money, she did not actually care about their well-being. She was pretending to care about it because she wanted access to them and buy them, I meant their bank accounts. She had absolutely zero interest in being a mother again. If she actually regretted what she had done, she would have reached out to them directly instead of talking to me about it. She couldn't and let go of her pride and ego for one second, she still wanted her kids to reach out to her even though it was she had messed up in the first place. It was astounding how she was so entitled. She tried to argue with me and told me that she was not after them for the money, and it was

insulting that I would imply it, but I told her I was not implying it, I was sure of it because it was pretty transparent, and I was disgusted and repulsed by what she was trying to do. She then tried to tell me that stealing everything from her. First I had stolen her children from her and now, I was stealing a fortune from her as well. So I told her that I did not need the money and I was initially skeptical about accepting the check, but now, I was going to take it all away from her because she did not deserve it. And now, she's crying about it on social media and going around telling everybody about what I said, trying to make me look like the bad guy.

Some of my relatives actually think that I went too far with what I said. said, and that kind of made me seem greedy and think that I owe her an apology, which is unbelievable. And that's why I'm here to ask if Ida because I told my sister that she does not deserve the money that her kids have decided to give to me? Update 1, hey, so I discussed this incident with my nephew and nieces, as the comments told me too. They told me that they already had heard about this from a couple of relatives and they had been thinking about talking to me about it, but didn't exactly have the time to, however, now that I had called them over and discussed it with them, they told me that they thought I did the right thing. My nephew was very upfront about his feelings

and said that he had never thought of his mother as a maternal figure in his life, and it had always been me because she had never even been there for him, and my niece had agreed with him. He had always been the most outspoken of the lot, it was unsurprising that it was all coming from him, and my nieces were too emotional to talk. But he was really angry and upset and told me that Diana had to speak to me because she had never done the bare minimum and that was because of the fact that she was getting child support money from their father and even then, she would constantly taunt them and make them feel bad about simply existing. It was not even their fault, which is true. So they think that I did the right thing and have told me that they are not

going to get in touch with their mother, no matter what happens. And they also feel that I should stand up for myself and tell my side of the story online, since Diana has decided to talk crap about me and social media has the best way to get the message across. So I guess that's what I'm going to do. I'm really glad that they decided to take my side on this because my parents are staying out of it altogether and have told me that they don't want to be involved. I find it really weird because Diana never spoke to them either

after she was cut off by her children and I find my parents' diplomatic approach to this situation really strange because they have never been in touch with Diana in the past six years either. I was kind of disappointed by that. But anyway, at least my nieces and my nephew are on my side. And now, coming to a question that a lot of people had for me, which is why did I not file for custody and have the children taken away from Diana if I knew that she was a bad mother and was not treating them well?

Well, I mentioned in my post that while what she was doing was not right, it also did not qualify as torture or abuse or neglect. She was just mean to them all the time and wasn't exactly emotionally available for her children. So maybe I could have filed for custody, but it would be very unlikely that I would be able to get the children under my care. Parents usually want families to stick together, and here, in their case, they had already lost a father. Their father had walked out of their life, and their mother was the only biological parent that they had remaining. So naturally, the court would want the family to stick together. And I knew for a fact that if I filed any sort of petition

against her or took any sort of legal action against Diana, she would make sure immediately that I never got to see them again. She would make sure that she took the kids far away from me and it was already unlikely that I would be able to take them away from her and get full custody. So it would just be putting them in a very risky situation, which is why I decided to play it safe and just keep in touch with them and be there for them all the time. I don't know if it was the right thing to do in the long run, but at the time, it seemed like the only solution. Maybe there could have been better ways to deal with it, but it was the only one that I could think of

and that's why I did what I thought was the right thing to do. It was not easy for me and for years, I kept contemplating whether I should file for custody or not, or have them taken away from her somehow and have them rehomed. But there is just no telling what might have happened and I thought that it was better for them to stay with their mother and have contact with me and my parents rather than any sort of risk in this kind of a situation.

I hope that on the questions that most people had for me and maybe I might come off as a bad guy for what I did, but I don't really care. I know that the kids are doing well in their lives now and I did whatever I could to keep them happy and safe and I was always there for them. So I have no reason to feel guilty about anything. Update 2, hey, so it has been one week since that message from Diana, and today, I have been receiving a lot of phone calls from relatives and people who have been speaking to her and they were telling me how wrong I was and stuff like that.

It was getting really tiring, and I was busy with work, which is why I had not been able to make a post earlier but today, I decided that I had had enough. After a short discussion with my nephew and my nieces, I decided to finally put up a post, sharing my side of the story and also, in a way, sharing their side of the story. Since I don't think anybody in the family knew exactly how much those kids had been through in their childhood.

how many taunts they had to face every single day, just because Diana had decided to get pregnant earlier and had dropped everything for her boyfriend at the time. Even after that, she kept blaming other people for her own decisions and tried to make it seem like she was doing everything in her power to do right by her children, but in reality, she was never there for them. And I think since she was telling everybody about how I had stolen her kids from her, and I was now stealing a fortune from her as well, now that her children were doing well financially, people deserve to know the reality of the situation. Not just her warped version of things where she was somehow the victim, instead of being the person who tormented

everybody. They were already judging me for a lot of things because they only knew her side of the story and sympathized with her, but in reality, it was me who deserved to tell my side of the story along with her kids. So I typed everything out a couple of hours ago and I made the post. So far, she has not said anything to me and the only messages that I have received are from my relatives, who were judging me earlier. Now, they have suddenly flipped and are trying to tell me that they judged me too quickly and they want to apologize to me, but honestly, it does not mean anything to me. I just wanted them to know the truth, I don't really care what they think of me.

But it was important for me to speak my truth and share how Diana had treated her kids, which is why they were not in touch with her anymore. Anyway, now that all is done, I am ready to move on from this. Honestly, I don't want anything to do with Diana anymore, and I was perfectly happy for the past six years when she was not in touch with me. And I think the same can be said for her kids as well, I don't understand why she felt the need to stir up so much drama. If she wanted money, she could have just asked for it instead of pretending that she actually

wanted another shot at being a mother. Okay, it's officially been a day since I made that post today, I guess Diana finally woke up and decided to get back at me. Instead of reaching out to me personally, she decided to continue being dramatic and started commenting on that post, trying to make it seem like I was lying and stuff, but that was not going to work, obviously. As soon as she tried to comment,

her kids started commenting and replying to her, reminding her of very specific incidents from their childhood where she had been horrible to them. That went on for about an hour or so and honestly, I did not even feel bad about it. Neither did anybody else, because my nephew, my nieces, and we were all thoroughly enjoying this process. They were completely humiliating her and there was no way that she could lie her way out of

this because every single lie that she was trying to tell in order to make me seem like the bad guy, she was getting caught out. I'm lucky that I decided to do this on the weekend because otherwise, maybe we wouldn't have been able to jump to our defense so quickly. Anyway, that went on for about an hour, and after that, she started deleting her comments so people would not be able to catch her in her lies. It was too late, though, since a lot of people had already seen what was going on in the comments section and I guess she started getting called out for her behavior as well by other people. She started deleting her comments

and backtracking everything that she said. And then, she finally blocked me. And she also blocked her own kids as well. I'm guessing that was her sign of surrendering, in a way. And I'm glad that she chose to do that because, in a fight with us, she definitely would not have won because we obviously have the upper hand here, be it morally or otherwise. I really thought that deleting the comments would be the end of our interaction, but after that, she chose to reach out to me personally as well. She sent me a message, saying that she hoped that I would be happy now since I had painted her to be the villain, and now everybody hates her. I thought that it was really ironic, coming from her since that's exactly what she was trying to do first.

She started it in now, just because I decided to hand it back to her, she can't take it. I don't even understand why people try to dish it out when they know that they can't lick it back up. Just don't start drama if you don't want to get caught up in the consequences of it. Anyway, I ignored that message and that's what all of us are going to go back to doing, ignoring her for the rest of our lives. Because she is not even worthy of our attention anymore, she has proven that.