Reddit Stories - NIGHTMARE AWAKENING_ Battling Sleepless Nights with a TROUBLESOME Sibling_

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #nightmareawakening #sleeplessnights #siblings #familyissues #conflictresolutionSummary:A gripping tale on Reddit about dealing with sleepless nights due to a troublesome sibling. The post reveals the challenges faced and seeks advice on resolving conflicts within the family.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, nightmareawakening, sleeplessnights, siblings, familyissues, conflictresolutionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. My sibling came to live with us and continued to disturb my infant at 4 a.m. When I established a time limit, she insulted me and then took away my high-priced nappy. Bag for her beach trip. I, 25F, live in a three-bedroom apartment with my fiancé, 27M. We have a six-month-old son. My younger sister Mia, fake name, 20F, recently started attending a university that's closer to, to where I live than both my parents' places. Because she needs to get to class early in the

morning, my fiancé, and I allowed her to move into our spare bedroom. She's been living with us since January. There's a set of rules I've been having Mia follow since she moved in, mostly to make sure everyone can live peacefully. One of the most important rules concerns arriving after my son's bedtime, usually between 19 hours and 20 hours. Mia is allowed to come home however late she wants, as long as she doesn't make too much noise. The door to the apartment has an electronic keypad lock, and the one we use also has a normal lock under it. Everyone has a copy of the key, but we all prefer typing in the password. However, the keypad is very noisy, and my son's nursery isn't far from the door. Every time the keypad is used after I've put the baby to sleep,

he wakes up. So naturally, the rule about getting home late includes not using the keypad. Everyone, including Mia, has known about this since day one. At first, we had no problems. But now that Mia has gotten used to college life, she's been going out at night frequently. This past month, she has arrived home after midnight every Friday and Saturday night. She always forgets the don't make too much noise rule, and she has, on multiple occasions, used the keypad. My son wakes up crying every.

Damn. Time. I'd sit her down and remind her of the rule whenever this happened, but she'd continue to do it. My fiancé and I got tired of putting our baby back to sleep because of that, so I changed the password and told me she was no longer allowed to use the keypad. She agreed, and promised to try to make less noise. On Friday night this week, Mia went out with her friends. She came home very drunk at 4 a.m. and forgot that I'd changed the password. Not only did she use the keypad, she also got the password wrong so many times that she triggered an alarm. I was furious. Not only did my baby wake up crying, but I also got complaints from my neighbors. The next morning, I told Mia that I'm establishing a curfew, while living with me,

she needs to be home by 20 hours. She won't be allowed to go out at night for the rest of the semester. Mia put up a fight, saying I have no right to ground her, edit. I never used to use that word like this or dictate what she does with her free time, but I held my ground. I told her she'll be free to do as she pleases when she has her own place and raises her own family. While living with mine, she has to do as I say. She told our parents about this. Our mother and stepfather are both on my side. Our father is on Mia's. He's saying I'm not her mother, and I have no right to treat her like a child. He also thinks it's unfair to do this to her over a drunken mistake. Ida. Comments where Op has replied, Oop clarifies, she is living here for free,

but only for now. The deal is for her to start paying a small portion of rent once she gets a job. Comment her, what if she never gets a job or takes months? What if she gets a job but doesn't tell you because she prefers freeloading? Oop, if the latter happens, I will find out. She tells our mother everything, and my mom would tell me. I know my family. But honestly, I don't need her to pay me right now. My father still gives her some money for personal expenses, so I'm not spending too much on her. Comment her, I'm having genuine trouble how unlocking multiple locks and jangling keys into a door is quieter than a keypad, excluding the alarm, and also wouldn't wake the baby up. Oop, it's only one lock.

It's not noiseless, but it's quiet enough that it doesn't wake the baby. The keypad makes very loud noises every time something is typed in, as well as another one once the door is open. How loud it is? Hoop, very. It makes noises whenever something is typed in, as well as another one once the door has been unlocked. And she's not just quietly typing in the password, she's being loud besides that, slamming the door, knocking stuff over, etc. Comment her, I believe some electronic locks have a silent function. At least my alarm system's keypad does.

Although I'm not so sure. I don't have electronic door locks, which is why I asked the question in the first place. Oop, the one we use doesn't have a silent function. Update 1, May 10th, 2024. It's very hard to explain my relationship with my younger sister in proper detail, but I will say that, while I love her dearly, Mia has always been a very very much. very inconsiderate person. I have countless examples. She almost didn't attend our cousin's wedding last year because she didn't want to walk to the venue, which was two blocks away from

our mom's place. We shared a bathroom when we were younger, and she'd insist on having the top drawers because she didn't want to crouch down, but she was cool with me doing so. She slept through my college graduation and didn't apologize for it. I'm bringing this up now because whenever I asked Mia why she kept forgetting to use her key, her excuse was that looking through her bag took too long and the keypad was quicker. In her head, bothering other people is better than slightly inconveniencing herself. After I established the curfew, Mia tried different ways to make me change my mind. She'd talk about not being able to cancel her tickets for party X, or about the fun her friends had at Party Y. She'd show me her developing LinkedIn profile,

and tell me she had learned her lesson and would be more responsible. At first, I really didn't want to have to kick her out, which many of you suggested, but I have limits. A few days ago, I heard her complaining to her friends on the phone about her bitch of a sister who wouldn't let her do anything. Later that day, I asked her which of our parents she planned on moving in with. Cue more fighting. I managed to tell her that I had no obligation to continue housing her for free, if she couldn't respect my family. Mia could either move back in with our parents or continue living with me for the low price of respecting my infant's son and stop complaining about it. We did have a very productive

conversation afterwards. I managed to get a lot off my chest, as did my sister. Mia apologized for everything. She admitted she'd been selfish, promised she'd make efforts to change and mature. I'm a strong believer that people can change, which is why I'm not kicking her out right now. But I made it very clear that Mia is on thin ice, and the next time she does anything like this will be the last time she ever sees the inside of my home. The curfew will continue until the end of the semester, as originally planned. My father also agreed to pay for Mia to go back to therapy. It helped her a lot when she was younger, so I'm hopeful about the future of this living situation. I also want to thank those who suggested a white noise machine.

My son is not a light sleeper. The keypad is just very loud and startles him awake, but my fiancé and I are still looking into getting one. Anything that helps our baby's sleep better is welcome. Thank you, Reddit. Update 2, October 4th, 2024. Okay, you guys called it. A little under a month ago, my fiancé and I kicked Mia out of my apartment. This actually had very little to do with the keypad thing. After my last post, things were relatively peaceful for a while. And then June came, and Mia decided to go back to her old ways. At first, it was just run-of-the-mill entitlement.

She started taking my stuff without permission, whining whenever my baby cried and complaining about having to do everything, literally just her own laundry. All of that was more annoying than unbearable, so I just take my stuff back. and let her clothes stink. Then, early in September, Mia went on a holiday beach trip with her friends. The day after she left, I noticed my diaper bag and one of my son's blankets were missing. Both were expensive gifts my best friend gave me for my baby shower. I checked every room in the apartment and found all of the items that had been in the diaper bag dumped on Mia's bed. She had emptied the bag to use it as extra luggage. The blanket was in a separate pocket,

so she took it by mistake. Later, when I got them back, they were both dirty and sandy. I called Mia as soon as I found the items. Her reasoning for taking the diaper bag was that she didn't want to empty her school bag, and her computer wouldn't fit anywhere else. She also called me dramatic when I told her to apologize. That's when I kicked her out. I told her that once she got back,

she'd have one week to grab her things and move back to either of our parents' places. My sister spent the rest of her trip trying to convince me otherwise. She also tried to get my parents on her side. My mom told her she'd brought it on herself. My father did try to convince me to be nice, but I told him I already had been. Mia tried to pick a fight about it when she got back from her trip, but I didn't budge. She moved out officially a couple weeks ago. My mom is making her save money so she can pay me back for the, almost, eight months of rent she owes me.

To be honest, I'm writing this mostly to vent. Being an older sister is exhausting. The house is always on fire, but you can never be the one freaking out. You're like a second mother, but not an actual parent, so your younger sibling feels no need to respect you. At least that was my experience growing up. My mom is fantastic, but she still acknowledges that I was basically me as third parent. My father was a good dad, but a mediocre parent,

and he refuses to understand that. He also doesn't accept that after the divorce, I was more responsible for Mia than he was. I love my sister dearly, but she's always treated me as an afterthought. For a few years, she'd contact me almost exclusively when she needed a ride. I'd spend a shit ton of money on presents.

She'd give me a $2 gift two months after my actual birthday. This happened three separate times, including this year. The list goes on. It always felt like I was the last thing on her mind. I'm not saying I was perfect, but I was always there for her. I will always love my sister, and I do believe she loves me too. But I also understand she's too selfish to realize she treats me poorly. I have to focus on my son, and I can't put up with Mia's immaturity right now.

Do I regret letting her move in with me? No. Do I regret not kicking her out back in May? Also no. To be honest, I think I needed that. Knowing I tried has always helped me sleep at night. Plus, living with Mia wasn't all bad. Accompanying the Drake-Slas Kendrick Lamar feud with her was pretty fun, at first, at least. My sister and I are on speaking terms. She was pissed at first, but got over it once she realized that literally no one was really taking her side. She's back to transitioning between our parents' places every week. I don't miss that lifestyle.

Mia hates it, as it takes her longer to get to her classes every morning. She's apologized, but I'm not letting her move back in with me. My son's turning one in a couple of weeks. Mia is invited to his birthday party, but I'm not expecting her to show up. My fiancé and I are getting married in a little under a year, and she's invited to that too. I hope my sister can learn to be more considerate, and that we can improve our relationship someday. But I'm done being the only one putting in the effort. This will be my final post. Thank you, Reddit. Comments where Ope has replied, on not regretting leting sis stay at first, Ope, I don't regret anything. I needed to accept I can't keep giving my sister these chances. And I don't think I could have truly achieved that

without knowing I'd tried. Comment her, just be aware of her mood heading up to your wedding. She could show up happy and excited for you, she could show up and sulk, and she could be goaded by her friends or TikTok into showing up just to cause problems. Shredded inappropriate dress, bridal gown, interesting hairdo, who knows? Security exists for people like that, sadly. Ope, nah, these things take effort. At worst, she'll sulk through the whole wedding. I know for a fact no one would support her if she tried anything more drastic. comment her, Dad sounds like he's still enabling the sister Ope. My father's stance here doesn't have much to do with wanting to enable Mia.

He's just always expected me to bend over backwards for others. That behavior has been improving lately, but there's still traces of it every now and then. Next story, boyfriend became obsessed with rock climbing, quit his career, and works at a sandwich shop. When I got pregnant, he chose a competition over my ultrasound. My boyfriend is obsessed with climbing slash bouldering. He plans almost his entire life around it. He's very good at it and has even become semi-sponsored. He gets discounted gear through the sponsorship, not money.

We met through climbing about four years ago when we were both already in relationships and became friends. While I've known him, he has become more and more committed to the lifestyle. He sold his car to fund a climbing trip. He was halfway through an engineering degree. and dropped out because it was getting in the way of competitions. His other real-life friends have all moved on in various ways, so most of his friends are just as obsessed with climbing as he is.

He still had other hobbies and a stable income until we relocated. I work for the government, Wu, and was offered a promotion if I moved out west. My boyfriend was thrilled and really supportive. We decided to take the risk, accept the position and move and together. The new position required a lot of the job. of changes. I'm on call most weekends, so my days of super competitive climbing are cut back. I get hair tested, so no more fun drug times. Some days I have to travel to different work sites, so I won't get home until after midnight. Overall, the job has been great though.

It's laid back and fun. The benefits are phenomenal. I'm really happy I made the jump. However, my boyfriend has gone the total opposite. Back home he had a 40-hour week job with benefits. Out here, one of his climbing buddies got him a job at a sandwich shop working lunch shift. He explained it would be temporary while he searched for something better. Six months later, he's still there with no interest in leaving. Why? Because it works great with his climbing schedule and all his co-workers climb.

In his defense, he lives the absolute. absolute bare-bones lifestyle. No car, no insurance, minimum possessions. He can get by on very little, which is financially responsible for his income, but he also has no savings. Any extra money goes towards climbing gear, granola and travel money, gas, flights, bus tickets, to attend competitions. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a competitive climber and do well at it, but I really just want to have fun and meet people. My boyfriend used to be pretty relaxed about it as well, but since the bar is so much higher out here, he's thrown himself into getting better. The other climbing bros love it and they all feed off one another.

And let me just say, most of those guys suck. They are almost all single, one wears a wedding band with climbing inscribed on it, broke and shameless. Like musicians, but less cool. Last time I hung out there, one of the guys told me I should buy the drink since I make the big money. When he's not climbing with the dudes, he's watching the same climbing videos online, reading climbing forums, researching new gear or compulsively checking scores on climbing results. I feel like all we ever talk or do anymore is climbing related and I'm getting so frustrated. I've talked about making plans to do other things, but he won't commit because he's waiting to hear about climbing. No car means you're tied to the guy driving out.

I even tried to plan a trip to NYC for his birthday, but he says he doesn't know if he can go until he figures out whether he has enough points to attend a world's level climbing competition in August. And then, even though I'm on birth control, I get pregnant. He's supportive in small ways, but is reluctant to cancel a climbing date to go to the gestational ultrasound. When we talk about options, he says he doesn't think we're in the right place. I've never given much thought to having children, but feel this little heart take at his answer. He thinks I'd be a great mom. He wants to have kids someday, just not now. I talk to my parents and friends and decide to terminate. He comes to the procedure and the doctor tells us I couldn't have kept it anyway. My boyfriend is

visibly relieved. Now his tone is we had no choice. We couldn't have had it anyway. He's moved on, but I'm still pretty sad about it. Reddit, I want to talk to him about all of these feelings. We're really growing apart. While I still find him attractive, I don't want to have sex anymore. I'm afraid I'll become pregnant again. And since nothing in his situation is changing, he'll still choose climbing. He's become the people we used to joke about.

The people who live in the same house. He's been a van or a tent at the prime climbing spots and eat, sleep, breathe climbing. On one hand, I'm glad he's happy out here, but on the other, I've found myself having a harder time relating to him. It feels like something we used to have in common has become really divisive. My parents are furious as he spoke to them before we left about being committed to building a future together and they don't understand why he's backsliding. For that matter, I don't either. I told him last month that I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I thought his lifestyle was pretty disappointing.

He said he would look for different work, but hasn't even tried. In the climbing mansion, an old house with six climbing dudes living in it, near us, a room is opening up. I'm seriously considering asking him to move out and live with his buddies. However, the other night he told me he was really happy with us and wanted to discuss the future. I'm so confused. I love him and want to support him, but his lack of ambition is, such a huge turn off. How can he even bring up the future when the only goals he has are all

centered around some crazy sport that could easily end if he hurt himself? How do I talk to him about this without hitting below the belt? I want to do it soon because he asked one of my close friends about ring shopping. Good sweet Lord, I don't want to get engaged right now. Help. Update. I didn't think people would care that much about an update, but I keep getting private messages asking what happened. I've gotten more messages than responses on my post. Apparently a lot of us have dated climbers. For the sake of ending the story, here's how things went after our post. Work had slowed down a lot and while I was still putting in overtime here and there, I wasn't really traveling to work sites. We were spending more time together and I felt like

one night in particular was a good time to bring up the subject. The conversation went, okay. I told him I was frustrated that he keeps talking about finding a new job, but never follows through. I brought him two different work flyers that I thought would be right up his alley. One was for climbing up cellular reception towers, come on. Even I think that sounds intriguing, and the other was for an engineering assistant. He basically said that he knows there is no future at his current work, but it pays enough for him to get by and he's having fun. Well, I told him I understood, but I was thinking that maybe we should stop living to

together. This turned into an argument about chores, money and the big one, what we wanted out of the future. He reiterated that he wants kids, marriage, and that he loves me very much, but he doesn't want to do those things right now. I asked him what would happen if I got pregnant again and he said that was very unlikely. When I told him I felt that he had made climbing his number one priority, he balked and said I was exaggerating. I threw open the closet door and pulled out all the camping equipment he bought before we came out here, all still with tags attached. Unless I've used it. He hasn't come on those trips because he's been climbing. This is hundreds of dollars of gear untouched over an eight-month period. I pointed out his dusty

mountain bike. He said he doesn't have a car. What about the Frisbee golf bag that is in our storage container? He hasn't had time. At this point, I just started crying. These were all activities we used to really enjoy and do together. I just feel like an idiot. I tell him I understand where he's at in his life and I want him to be happy, but I'm going to start looking for another apartment. We have a little over a month left on our lease, so at the end we can part ways amicably.

He looks completely devastated. All he says back is if that's what you want. I found an apartment and will be moving out in a week. Things have been cordial enough. We share a studio and he keeps the bed while I sleep in the closet on a camping cot. Hey, it finally got some use. He's moving into the climbing house, temporarily, he says. My parents are worried that I'm falling apart, but I feel okay.

Sad, but okay. I still really care about him, but I've realized almost all of the stress in my life was coming from the energy I was putting into our relationship. Maybe it'll sink in when we finally do split ways. So there you have it.