Reddit Stories - MIDNIGHT ESCAPE_ When FAMILY Ties Bind Too Tight_

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familyties #midnightescape #relationships #boundaries #supportSummary:In "Midnight Escape: When Family Ties Bind Too Tight," a gripping tale unfolds as a character navigates complex family dynamics, setting boundaries, and seeking support for a daring midnight escape.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familyties, midnightescape, relationships, boundaries, supportBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. My relative fled from her oppressive mother and arrived at my doorstep in tears late at night with her belongings in tow. Now, Sam and Lily are threatening legal action against me for child abduction. But I won't send her back. My 36, female, sister-in-law Debbie, 42, female, has a 16-year-old daughter, Robin. Debbie and I have never been friends, but we have always been civil to each other. Robin and I, however, have always gotten along incredibly well, and she frequently refers to me as her favorite person in the family. We have a lot of things in common and I think that's one of

the reasons why we get along so well. Plus, I also work with kids around her age since I'm a high school counselor, so I know about their likes and dislikes and how to get along with them. So I guess that helps as well. My husband and I got married four years ago, but we have been together for almost six years. Initially, Robin and I were not that close because she was very shy, but around two years back, we started talking about some TV show that both of us were watching and were really into and that's when we started getting along. After a couple of months, she started opening up to me and told me that she had been having a lot of problems with Debbie. She confided in me that her mother was very difficult to get along with, and it had always

been that way in the past, but recently, things had gotten much worse. Robin wanted to go to Juilliard because she was quite a skilled violinist but Debbie thought that music was a waste of time and wanted to focus on pulling up her grades and becoming a lawyer just like her. It was one of the classic passion or career debates that has been going on for ages, but I really thought that they would be more open-minded than that since we're living in the 21st century and I don't want to exaggerate, but Robin really is extremely talented. And it would be a waste of her talents to not pursue a career as a violinist in a professional capacity. I had tried my best to console Robin and be there for her whenever she was too frustrated with the

situation at home because her father really didn't want to weigh in any of this and her mother was too dominating for anybody else to stand up. Against her either. She was basically fighting with her mom on her own and trying to get her to understand where she was coming from, but it was getting very difficult for her. I tried to sympathize with her as much as I could, but that was really the most that I could do. I had even suggested that maybe I could talk to Debbie but Robin herself told me not to do that because that would only make the situation worse since Debbie did not appreciate other people meddling in their personal affairs. So all I could do was just be there for her and tell her that things are going to be all right,

even though I felt really bad for her, and I wish I could do something. This had been going on for the past couple of months and recently, things got very ugly, and because of that, I'm in a tough spot at the moment. So for the past three months, my husband has been working on a project, which requires him to stay in Ohio for most of the month. He only comes home on alternate weekends, but thankfully, he'll be done with this by the end of this month. The point is, I've mostly had the house to myself and have been living on my own.

Robin knew that and had been visiting me pretty often to spend some time with me because apparently, that brought her peace. She talked to me like a friend, and I would try to give her advice, just like I would do any other student. In the past few weeks, she had apparently, been having a lot of fights with her mother, and things were getting really heated in their household. Apparently, Debbie had started interrupting her while she was practicing and telling her to get out of the house if she wanted to play the violin so badly because she was not going

to entertain this BS in her household. Then they would argue, and Debbie would insult her and tell her that she was just going to be an unemployed burden on the family in the future, if she continued to disobey her mother, and I could understand how it was so frustrating. So I was aware that things were only getting worse with time, and I'd been feeling quite worried for her. And then, last night, Robin showed up at my house at around half an hour past midnight. I was quite shocked to see her there because it was quite late and it was a school night on top of that. To add to my surprise, she also had a bunch of bags with her. And she was crying like a baby, and as soon as I opened the door to her, she literally broke down

on the doorstep. I had to actually lift her and bring her inside because it was free to. and I also brought her bags inside since she wasn't even in a state to stand up on her own. It was very evident that she had been crying for a really long time because her eyes were all red and puffy. Once she was inside, she continued to cry, and I let her because I knew that something terrible must have happened because otherwise, she would never show up in such a state and so late in the night. After around 15 minutes, she finally seemed to calm down a bit. Then, I finally asked her what exactly had happened because I was very concerned, and she finally told me that she had decided to leave her house. I was not surprised because from whatever I had heard,

I was impressed that she had even managed to stay with somebody like Debbie for so long in the first place. And then, Robin started telling me exactly what had happened that day. So apparently, they had received the results of a test that they had taken a couple of days back. It was a math test and math isn't really Robin's strongest suit from what she told me. me. And as somebody who used to be really bad at math in high school as well, I don't really blame her. Anyway, she managed to scrape by and got a C on the test, which, according to her, was good enough. Because honestly, she has been bad at math her entire life, and her other grades kind of made up for everything. She thought Debbie wouldn't be surprised, but when she came back

home with the test, Debbie was furious and completely lost her mind. She started blaming Robin and the violin for her grades, which was kind of unfair because she was pretty decent at everything else. She was averaging A B grade and that's not really that bad. But Debbie didn't really seem to care about any of that and started yelling at Robin as soon as she told her that she had a C in math. Robin fought back because she was really frustrated with the way she was being treated by her mother. That argument just got worse and after one point, Debbie went upstairs and Robin followed her, and she barged into a room with Robin right behind her. Then, Debbie grabbed her violin and started smashing it to the ground. Robin tried to stop her and grabbed her arm, but Debbie,

for some reason, decided to push her back and continued breaking the violin to bits while Robin cried. Her father was at work at the time but Robin told me that even if he had been there, she highly doubted if he could stand up for her. Anyway, after the damage was done, Debbie literally just walked away without another word, and Robin just sat there in her room, crying until her father came back home. Even after her dad came back,

it took him almost half an hour to finally come check up on her. And then, when he finally came to talk to her, all he said was that he would buy her a new one. But she had to promise that she would get better grades and only then would he be able to buy something because otherwise, Debbie would never approve of it. She had already been miserable and when her dad said that, she finally lost it. Apparently, Robin had a bag packed anyway after her last fight with her mother and after this incident, she decided that she could no longer live with him anymore.

So after they had fallen asleep, she snuck out of the house, got a cab, and came straight to my place because she felt like I was the only person she could trust. On my hand, I was happy that she had chosen me to be her safe space, but on the other hand, I was quite worried about what was going to happen in the future. However, I did not want Robin to worry about any of this that night while she was already so miserable. So I told her to go to sleep and not think about any of this for a while. After she fell asleep, I finally called my husband and told him all about this. I had been keeping him updated on the situation with Debbie and Robin and he had known how difficult it had been for the kid so far. He also said that he was not surprised that Debbie was acting so psychotic because

right from childhood, she had always been a bit of a control freak, but this was just taken to another level and it was not acceptable in the slightest. He told me that I should let Robin stay with me and not worry about what other people might have to say about this. Once I had spoken to him, I felt more sure about my decision and that was it. But then this morning, Debbie and her husband showed up at my house really early and demanded that I tell Robin to go home with them. They said that they had spoken to all of their relatives after they had woken up and discovered that Robin was not in her room and they were aware of the fact that she spent quite a lot of time at my place after school. So they knew that I was helping her hide out here but now,

they wanted me to let her go home. Debbie was furious and I could see it, but I decided to stand my ground, and I told him that Robin was not willing to see them at the moment and that the way she had behaved with her was downright psychotic, so I did not think it was a good idea for her to be around such a sensitive kid at a time when she was already feeling so miserable. When I said that, Debbie started yelling at me and got all up in my face, saying that I was nobody to judge her because I was not Robin's mother so I should stop trying to act that way. I tried to be as respectful as possible and kept my anger under control. I tried to explain to her that I had not forced Robin to come to me, but instead, Robin herself had shown up at my place, and now, as a responsible

adult, it was my duty to keep her safe. She kept yelling at me and her husband tried to defuse the situation and spoke to me politely, trying to tell me that this was a personal matter within their family, and I should not involve myself in any of this. So I had to explain to him that I did not do this myself, but their daughter had been confiding in me for the past couple of months and as someone with a conscience, I just couldn't help but take her in and now, she would only go back if and when she felt like it. It wasn't my choice, it was completely up to Robin, and I was going to respect that. I had already told Robin to stay put in the guest room and not come out as soon as I heard the bell ringing furiously, but she still decided to come out when things started getting

a little too loud in the living room. I was not expecting that, and as soon as she came out of the room, I told her to go back inside, and I would deal with this on my own, but she still stood there, and even though I could see that she was literally shaking like a leaf she still squared up to Debbie and told her to leave because she did not want to go back home with them. She announced that she wanted to stay here with me and she didn't even want to see them around anymore. I'm not going to lie, at that point, all of us were shocked because, like I said in the beginning, Robin was a very shy kid and generally quiet. This was quite unexpected, but I was glad that she was finally standing up for herself even though it kind of backfired on me.

Because when Robin made that announcement, Debbie turned to me and started accusing me of manipulating and brainwashing her because apparently, she thought that I was trying to steal her daughter away from her since I could not have kids of my own. I've got to say, it was a crazy and wild theory to say out loud since I think pretty much everybody knows that it was my choice to get married late and not have children of my own. Everybody has asked me about it and I've always made things very clear. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy having Robin here, but I would just not like having to raise a baby of my own. It was as simple as that and whatever she said, it was just not true.

Anyway, after yelling at me for a bit, she decided to leave after she realized that no amount of yelling was going to get her daughter back to her. And then I received a phone call from my mother-in-law a few hours after Debbie left and she started screaming at me almost immediately. It was quite unprecedented because I had a good relationship with my in-laws and I had a good relationship with my in-laws and I, I did not expect them to be so unfeeling. Anyway, I could hear that all three of them were on the phone, including Debbie. My mother-in-law and Debbie screamed at me about how heartless and selfish I was being. They said that my only duty would have been to send Robin back home as soon as she had shown up at my door and then, I should have let her parents deal with this situation, but instead, I was too busy trying to be the Savior. And then, my father-in-law told me that they were going to

give me a couple of days to think things over and send Robin back home, but if I didn't do that, they would not have any other choice but to sue me. Now I know that they don't have a legal leg to stand on and they can't exactly do that, but I just wanted to make sure that I'm doing the right thing. So, I'd offer not sending my sister-in-law's daughter home after she came to me crying in the middle of the night. Update one so after my father-in-law said that they were going to sue me, I was kind of scared and I posted here to ask if I was doing the right thing or not. And the response was pretty overwhelming, so we're sticking together. I also spoke to my husband and he said that he's going to speak to his family and tell them to back off because right now, it's Robin's decision where she wants to stay, and after the way that Debbie has treated her daughter, she has no right to make any demands.

I haven't told Robin about the phone call because I don't want her to freak out and panic. She's already pretty anxious about everything and I don't want to make the situation worse for her. Anyway, my husband said that he was going to speak to his parents after work today and tell them that I'm not going to be sending Robin back home. He also said that he's coming back home this weekend, so if there's any more trouble with his family, he's going to deal with it in person. He gets off work in a couple of minutes, so I'm just going to wait and see what happens. Also, just in case they actually did approach a lawyer, I have told my lawyer as well about

this entire situation so that in case they actually file a lawsuit against me for anything, I can defend myself and I'm not caught off guard. I was very stressed out in the morning if I'm being honest. But after reading the comments on my original post, I am a little calmer now because I know that I'm doing the right thing. I will keep you guys updated on the situation with Robin since a lot of people seem to really care about what's going on with her. It's kind of touching, even though we don't really know each other but then,

people seem to care so much. Update 2, so it's almost midnight right now. Robin is asleep and a couple of minutes ago got off a phone call with my husband. He told me that he had spoken to his parents and told them that they could not file any sort of lawsuit against me and if they did, he would make sure that we went no contact with them. He explained to them that Debbie had been mistreating Robin and I knew about it, which is why I had taken her in. If I had ever thought that Robin was in the wrong here, I would have sent her back home and made her clear the air with her mother, but that's not the case here.

But they just refused to see things from my point of view and kept saying that this was between Debbie and Robin and I should have just sent her back home instead of encouraging this nonsense. They think that this is Debbie's personal family affair and I have no right to meddle in this which is so ridiculous because once again, I have to remind you guys that the only reason I got dragged into any of this was because Robin came to me since she thought that she could trust me more than anybody else in the family. I think that speaks a lot about their family. My in-laws were pretty bent on whatever they believed and even told my husband that if he was on my side on this, then they had nothing to talk about anymore since he had made his priorities

very clear. They even tried to make him feel guilty for taking my side and said that they had never expected something like this out of him because he had always been a good son to them. But now, it seemed like he was trying to be diplomatic and defend something that was very wrong just to keep me out of trouble. So while my husband had tried to be nice and polite to them and discuss things in a civilized manner, after they said that, he got into a fight with them. Honestly, I really don't understand why my in-laws are acting like this because I think I had mentioned earlier that they have always had a very good relationship with me. So this is very unexpected and, I think they should realize that Debbie is not the kind of

wonderful woman that they think of her to be. I feel like they have been brainwashed against me, but even then, there's no excuse to act like this and make me the villain in a situation where I'm clearly trying to help their grand-daughter. Anyway, all things said and done, my husband ended up fighting with his parents over and after that, he told them that they were free to do whatever they wanted, but he knew that we were doing the right thing and so, he was not scared of anything. So now, if they want to come after me legally, they are free to do that. Update 3, so it was a pretty hectic day today. Yesterday, Robin had decided to skip school and I had taken a day off from work because we were still

trying to process everything that was going on. But today, I had to go to work and she had to go to school. She goes to a different school than the one that I work at, but, thankfully, it was on my way, so I dropped her off and then I went on my way. But then, I received a phone call in the middle of the day from her school, telling me to come pick her up because apparently something really concerning had happened and they didn't want to discuss this on the phone. They just wanted me to come over as quickly as I could and then take her home. I guess you guys can imagine how scared I was when I received that phone call and I immediately texted this to my husband, quickly explained the situation to my co-workers, and then left.

When I got to her school, she was in the principal's office and was crying really hard again. As soon as she saw me, she hugged me and said that she was going to go back home, and she was not going to be a burden on me anymore. I was very confused and had no idea what to say to that, so I just told her that she was not a burden on me and that we could discuss it when we got home. I just needed to know what had happened. At that moment, I could see that she was hysterical and I wasn't going to get anything sensible out of her, so I sat her back down after comforting her for a while and then spoke with the principal.

Apparently, she had a mental breakdown in the middle of class because she had received a bunch of texts from her parents, it led to a full-blown panic attack, and she had to be taken to the nurse because of it. So it happened in the middle of her literature class and they generally had a rule that students were not allowed to check their phone, during class, but she had taken out her phone just because it had been buzzing so frequently. Her teacher had told her to turn it off, so that's why she had taken out her phone, but as soon as she opened it and seemed to read something on the screen, she started crying in the middle of class and literally fell to the floor because of how hard she was crying. That was extremely concerning so her literature teacher had a couple of her friends take her to

the nurse's office and she kept crying all the way here and hasn't stopped they didn't even know how to deal with any of this and they were about to call her parents, but she in that they called me instead and that's why I was here. They said that Robin's friends had said that the texts were from her parents and since school staff were not allowed to check phones and other personal belongings, they had just called me up to directly deal with the issue and take her home since this was too intense for them to deal with. So I went to Robin and I made her unlock her phone so I could read the texts that had caused her to break down like this and of course, they were from Debbie and her husband. The two of them had added her back to the group and said

that they were going to file a lawsuit against me, which explained why Robin had said that she was going to go back home and not be a burden on me anymore. They also said that they were going to make sure that they brought her back home, by hook or by crook, and were going to ensure that after this she never touched the violin or any other musical instrument again. And the two of them had even had the audacity to threaten her by saying that if she spoke up about any of this to anybody, they were going to ruin her life. I was furious when I read those messages and they were just a bunch of hateful messages where they were calling her names, telling her that she was ungrateful and selfish, and now, everybody who was taking her side was going to have to pay the price for it.

I could understand how that could cause her to have a mental breakdown because she was already in such a fragile state of mind ever since she had left home. This could cause anybody to break down. So I told her that everything was going to be fine and she was not a burden on me. She did not need to worry about any of this and we were going to have it all sorted out. But she just kept crying so I helped her get to the cause. and we drove back home. Once we got home, I told her to get some rest and made her something to eat so she could calm down a little. Right now, it's evening and she has been sleeping for the past three hours. So I'm feeling a bit relieved now. I have spoken to my husband about

this, and he has suggested that maybe we could get her legally emancipated from her parents and get a restraining order against them because clearly, Debbie and her husband would not stop at anything to harass her and make her live life according to their terms. It was getting really nasty too because it's not normal for kids her age to break down like this. I'm just hoping that things get better with her mental state for now and I'm also going to have to start looking for therapists. She really needs the help, I can tell. And my husband is coming back on Friday, instead of Saturday, just because of Robin. We are both really concerned about her and I think the sooner that we deal with this, the better it is for her in the long run.

Update 4. Hey, Everyone. It's been a couple of weeks since my last update. So, to fill you guys in, that weekend that my husband came back home, we had a proper discussion about all of this, and we decided that we were going to help Robin get legally emancipated from her parents. When we suggested this to her, we were not sure if she would be open to the idea, but she agreed almost immediately. Apparently, the thing with the violin and the amount of control that Debbie wanted to exercise over her future was just the tip of the iceberg. Debby was a complete psycho-helicopter

mother who wanted to control every single aspect of her daughter's life and Robin was more than glad to get away from her. The kind of verbal abuse that Robin has faced all her life, it's unimaginable and unforgivable. And to think that she wasn't even able to talk to anybody about this for so long. In fact, one of the major reasons that she hadn't been able to speak about this so far was because Debbie and her father had forbidden her from discussing anything that happened in the house with anybody else in the family. When she was younger, she had tried to speak about all of this and the kind of pressure she was under to her grandparents, but they had in turn complained to Debbie and she had received the beating of a lifetime so after that, she stopped trusting her family

members. But then, I was really nice and she felt like she could trust me, which she was right about. Anyway, after we learned that there was much more to this, we didn't wait much, so we immediately spoke to a lawyer and got the proceeding started. It's still ongoing as of now, but we are positive that we will be able to get her legally emancipated. Things are going in our favor and Debbie's psychotic behavior during our meetings is not helping either. I hope that continues because honestly, she doesn't deserve to be around Robin. My husband is also home permanently now and I don't have to worry about him going to Ohio since he's done with the project there. Also, a lot of you might be wondering whether Robin got a new violin or not, and yeah, she did. We bought her one

a couple of weeks ago. It's a better one than what she had previously. Another surprising thing that's been happening is that her grades are also getting better while she's been living with us. It's too soon to tell, but I think she might start averaging an A grade if this continues and that will be pretty great. So she's pretty happy and we're hoping that things get better for us in the future.