Reddit Stories - Sibling who RELINQUISHED GUARDIANSHIP of her CHILDREN became fixated on my daughter and

Episode Date: July 27, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #parenting #siblingrivalry #childcustody #obsessivebehaviorSummary: A sibling who relinquished guardianship of her children became fixated on my daughter, causing tension and concern within the family. The situation escalates as boundaries are crossed, leading to difficult decisions and strained relationships.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familyissues, parentingdrama, siblingrelationships, childcustodybattle, obsessivebehavior, familyconflict, personalboundaries, difficultdecisions, strainedrelationships, familydynamics, emotionalstress, toxicfamilydynamics, mentalhealthstruggles, copingwithfamilydrama, settingboundariesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Sibling who relinquished guardianship of her children became fixated on my daughter and abducted her to an amusement park while telling her we were unavailable to accompany her, so I, had her arrested and my mom is going to disown me. My sister Lisa has always had problems, but this goes way beyond anything I could have imagined. She's 28 and has been struggling with addiction since high school when she started hanging around with the wrong crowd and got into drugs and marijuana. I remember being in ninth grade when Lisa was a senior, watching her grades plummet and seeing her come home at all hours of the night with bloodshot eyes and this vacant look that made me worry. She dropped out her senior year and never graduated, which always made our parents worry about her future, and I could see how much it hurt my dad every time someone asked him about Lisa's

plans after high school. For years she bounced between jobs, mostly working as a server at different bars and restaurants, and she would call me crying about getting fired for showing up late or not showing up at all when she was using. I lost count of how many times my parents bailed her out financially when she couldn't make rent or got evicted from another apartment, and there was always this tension in our house because Lisa would promise to get clean and then disappear for weeks at a time. That's actually where she met her ex-husband Jake about six years ago, at this bar where she was working nights and he was a regular customer who seemed different from the usual losers she brought around. When they first got together, Jake seemed like he was

good for her because he encouraged her to get clean and she actually went to treatment and stayed sober for a while. I remember feeling this hope watching Lisa during those early months with Jake, seeing her show up to family dinners on time and actually engage in conversations instead of nodding off or making excuses to leave early. They got married pretty quickly and had two kids, Emma who's now eight and Tyler who's six, and for about four years things seemed stable enough that we all thought maybe she had finally turned her life around. She was working part-time and seemed to be handling motherhood okay,

even though there were always little signs that made me worry about how she was managing everything, like how she would call me panicking about basic parenting situations or how Emma and Tyler always seemed a little too clingy when they were around other adults. Then our dad died suddenly last year from a heart attack and Lisa just completely fell apart in a way that reminded me of her worst days in high school. I could see the grief hit her like a truck and instead of leaning on Jake or getting professional help, she started isolating herself and making these bad decisions that put everyone around her in impossible positions.

She started neglecting Emma and Tyler more and more, leaving them with me constantly. while claiming she needed to spend time with friends to deal with how overwhelmed she felt as a single parent when Jake was working long hours. At first I didn't mind helping out since I worked from home and my daughter Sophie really enjoyed playing with her cousins, but it started becoming a pattern where Lisa would drop them off after breakfast and not come back until late in the evening, sometimes looking disheveled and smelling like alcohol or something worse. Eight months ago when Lisa left the kids with me for an entire weekend without even calling to check on them, and when Jake came to pick them up on Sunday night he was furious because he had no idea where she was. That's when I decided I had to tell him what was really going on because I could see how confused and hurt Emma and Tyler were getting when their mom kept disappearing on them.

Jake started investigating and that's when he found Lisa wandering around the park near their house at 2 a.m. without shoes or her purse, clearly high on something and completely disoriented. We all tried to get her back into treatment, but she refused to admit she had a problem and kept making excuses about how she was just going through a rough patch after dad's death. The final straw came when Jake discovered she was having an affair with her drug dealer, who was supplying her with whatever she was using. Jake filed for divorce immediately and the custody battle was brutal because there was just so much evidence of her drug use, neglect of the children, and complete inability to function as a parent.

The kids themselves didn't even want to see her anymore because they were tired of being disappointed and hurt by her broken promises and erratic behavior. They would refuse to take her phone calls and Emma once told me that she felt safer when her mom wasn't around because she never knew what version of her she was going to get. Six months ago the court awarded Jake full custody and Lisa lost all parental rights except for supervised visits that she barely even showed up for. After losing her kids, Lisa started showing up at my house every single day, and I mean literally every day for morning until night, like she had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do with her time. She would arrive right after Sophie left for school and stay until after dinner, and I started noticing that... Hi, I'm Darren Marler, host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Sfreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere from Apple. podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic

ad insert ad insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreaker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career. Sprinker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out

or running a full-blown podcast network, Spreker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R.com. She was becoming obsessed with Sophie

in a way that made me really uncomfortable and reminded me of how she used to fixate on things when she was using drugs. She would bring Sophie ice cream cream every day even after I told her to stop because it was ruining her appetite for dinner. She would discourage Sophie from doing her homework by saying she was too smart to need to study so much, and she even told Sophie that she didn't need to worry about school because she was

pretty enough that some man would take care of her when she grew up. I remember the first time I heard Lisa say that to Sophie, I felt this cold shock run through my body because it was exactly the kind of toxic message that I never wanted my daughter to learn. Sophie was sitting at the kitchen table trying to work on a math assignment and Lisa was hovering over her, constantly interrupting and suggesting they should do something fun instead, and when Sophie said she needed to finish her homework first. Lisa laughed and said that pretty girls like Sophie didn't need to worry about math because they had other advantages in life. I immediately corrected her and explained to Sophie that her education was important regardless of how she looked. The worst part was that Lisa started criticizing my parenting constantly, telling me that I worked too much and didn't spend enough quality time with Sophie, and she kept suggesting that Sophie needed more fun and adventure in her life instead of all the structure and rules that David and I had established.

She would make comments about how Sophie seemed stressed or tired, implying that we were pushing her too hard academically or not letting her be a kid, and she would undermine our decisions about screen time, bedtime, and household responsibility. by telling Sophie that we were being too strict. When my husband David made a sarcastic comment about how Lisa might as well move in since she was here all the time anyway, she took it seriously and actually proposed that she could be Sophie's full-time nanny so I could focus more on work. I completely lost it at that point and told her she needed to leave and give us some space, which led to this huge fight where she accused me of being selfish and not understanding how much she needed to feel useful and needed by someone.

Last week was Sophie's 11th birthday and we had planned this amazing road trip to Disneyland that we had been talking about for months. Lisa found out about our plans and insisted that she wanted to come with us, and when I hesitated she volunteered to handle all the planning and hotel bookings if we would pay for everything. I thought maybe it would be good for her to have something positive to focus on and Sophie seemed excited about having her aunt come along, so I agreed even though something in my gut was telling me it was a mistake. Yesterday was supposed to be the day we left for our trip and Lisa had picked Sophie up from school like she usually does a few times a week, but when 4.30 came and went without them coming home I started getting worried. I kept checking my phone and looking out the window,

telling myself that maybe they had stopped at the store or gotten caught in traffic, but something was wrong. I called Lisa's phone over and over, but it kept going straight to voicemail, and by 6 o'clock I was in full panic mode because this was completely unlike her to not answer her phone when she had Sophie, especially on a day when we were supposed to be leaving for vacation. My mind was racing with all the worst-case scenarios and I kept thinking about her history with drugs and wondering if something terrible had happened to both of them. I started imagining car accidents and drug deals gone wrong and all the horrible things that could happen to an 11-year-old girl if her aunt was high in making bad decisions.

When I could feel my heart pounding so hard I thought I might have a panic attack right there. in my living room. I called David at work and he could hear the terror in my voice, so he rushed home immediately and found me pacing around the house like a caged animal. Checking my phone every 30 seconds and calling Lisa's number over and over even though it kept going to voicemail. David tried to calm me down by suggesting logical explanations for where they might be. But I could see the worry in his eyes too because he knew that Lisa's behavior had been escalating and that something like this was exactly what we had been afraid might happen. We were both just pacing around the house trying to figure out what to do and debating

whether we should call the police when I finally decided to call my mom to see if she had heard from Lisa, thinking maybe Lisa had taken Sophie there without telling US. When my mom answered the phone I could immediately tell from her voice that something was wrong, and when I asked if she knew where Lisa and Sophie were she got really quiet for a long time before finally admitting that Lisa had taken Sophie to Disneyland. My mom explained that Lisa had been planning this for weeks behind our backs because she felt like she deserved the chance to create special memories with Sophie since she never got to take Emma and Tyler to Disneyland and they wanted nothing to do with her now.

Lisa had deliberately booked hotel rooms and bought tickets for just herself and Sophie, and she had told Sophie that David and I were too busy with work to take her and that she was saving Sophie's birthday by making sure she got to go. The part that made me feel sick to my stomach was finding out that my mom had known about this plan the entire time and had kept it secret for me even though she claimed she tried to talk Lisa out of it at first. My mom said she felt sorry for Lisa because she was so depressed about Lucy. Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt.

Sfreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career.

Spreaker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Spreeker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R.com.

Using her own children and she thought maybe this would help her feel better, and she actually believed that I would understand once I saw how happy it made Sophie. I was so angry I could barely speak and I hung up on my mom immediately and called 911 to report that my daughter had been kidnapped. The dispatcher took down all the information including Lisa's license plate number and description of her car, and I made sure to tell them about her history with drugs and addiction because I was terrified about what might happen to Sophie if Lisa was using again. About two hours later the police called to tell me they had found Lisa's car and arrested

her, but she had fought with the officers when they tried to stop her and had to be physically restrained. They brought Sophie home and she was confused and upset because Lisa had been lying to her the whole time, telling her that David and I had decided we were too busy to take her to Disneyland and that this was a surprise rescue mission to save her birthday. Sophie kept asking me why her aunt why she got arrested, and I didn't even know how to explain what had happened because I was still trying to understand it myself. The police officer told me that Lisa would be charged with kidnapping and resisting arrest, and that there would probably be a court date in the next few weeks. I haven't talked to my mom since I hung up on her yesterday and I honestly don't know if I ever

want to speak to her again. I feel like she completely betrayed my trust and put my daughter in danger by enabling Lisa's completely insane behavior, and I can't understand how she thought any of this was okay. David is furious and wants to press charges to the fullest extent of the law, and I think this wasn't just some family misunderstanding, this was a deliberate kidnapping that involved lying and manipulation and could have put Sophie in serious danger. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now or how I'm supposed to handle this situation with my family. Everyone keeps telling me that Lisa is sick and needs help, but at what point does being sick stop being an excuse for putting children in danger? I feel like I'm going crazy because this whole situation is so far beyond anything I ever thought would happen in my family. update one one week later i wanted to update everyone who commented on my original post because the

situation has gotten even more complicated and i'm still trying to process everything that's happened over the past week first thank you to everyone who validated that what lisa did was absolutely kidnapping and not some family misunderstanding like my mom keeps trying to claim it was i think i needed to hear from outside people that my reaction wasn't an overreaction because i've been second-guessing myself constantly since this happened. The terror of not knowing where your child is and whether they're safe is something I wouldn't wish on anyone, and I keep having these moments where my mind goes to all the horrible things that could have happened if the police hadn't found them when they did. I know some people in the comments suggested that maybe I should have given Lisa

permission to take Sophie to Disneyland, but the truth is I would never have agreed to let her take Sophie anywhere alone because I don't trust her judgment or her ability to keep Sophie safe, especially given her history with addiction and reckless behavior. The kidnapping has traumatized David more than I expected and he hasn't been able to because he doesn't want to leave Sophie alone even though she's at school during the day. He's been picking her up from school himself every day and stays with her until I'm done with work, and I can see how much this whole situation has shaken his sense of security about our family's safety. David keeps saying that if something like this could happen with my own sister,

then we can't trust anyone, and I'm starting to think he might be right. Lisa's court date is scheduled for next month and she's being charged with kidnapping in the second degree and resisting arrest. I contacted a lawyer this week to understand what our options are and to start the process of getting a restraining order against Lisa because I don't want her anywhere near Sophie or our family ever again. The lawyer explained that because Lisa took Sophie across state lines without permission and lied to her about our consent, this is definitely a serious kidnapping charge that could result in prison time. My mom has been calling and texting constantly trying to get me to drop the charges, and she keeps sending these messages about how Lisa is mentally ill and needs treatment, not prison time. She keeps saying that Lisa was just trying to do something nice for Sophie because she's lost everything else in her life, and that I'm being cruel by her. pursuing legal action against someone who is clearly struggling with depression and grief.

The part that makes me angriest is that my mom keeps acting like this was some spontaneous decision that Lisa made in a moment of poor judgment, when the truth is that Lisa planned this for weeks and deliberately deceived everyone involved, including Sophie. This wasn't a cry for help or a moment of desperation, this was a calculated plan to take my daughter without my permission and lie to her about why her parents weren't there. Most of my extent, The extended family has been supportive of my decision to have Lisa arrested, and my dad's sister actually told me that she thought Lisa had crossed the... Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast.

I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere, from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreaker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career.

Spreaker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Sprinker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out spreeker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R dot com. A line that couldn't be uncrossed.

My uncle said that losing your own children doesn't give you the right to take someone else's child, and that Lisa needs to face the consequences of her actions instead of being enabled by people who feel sorry for her. I'm scheduled to meet with the lawyer again next week to finalize the restraining order. We're also going to discuss whether there are any other legal protection. We can put in place to make sure Lisa can't contact Sophie or come near our house when she eventually gets out of jail. Update 2, 10 days after Update 1. Things have escalated in a way I never saw coming and I'm honestly scared for my family's safety now. My mom showed up at our house three days ago and completely lost her mind on our front porch,

screaming at David and me while Sophie was standing right there listening to everything. I heard someone pounding on our door around 7 p.m. and when, When I looked through the people I saw my mom standing there with this expression on her face that I had never seen before, like she was absolutely furious and barely containing herself from exploding into violence. My first thought was that maybe something had happened to Lisa in jail, but as soon as I opened the door my mom started yelling at me about how I was destroying Lisa's life and being heartless to my own sister, and I could smell alcohol on her breath which explained why she seemed so

aggressive and out of control. She was screaming so loud that our neighbors were coming out of their houses to see what was happening, and I felt this burning embarrassment mixed with fear because I had never seen my mom act like this in public before. Sophie came running from the living room because she thought someone was in trouble, and my mom saw Sophie and started directing her anger toward her too, telling Sophie that her parents were being mean to Aunt Lisa and that we were going to make Aunt Lisa go to prison for trying to give Sophie a fun birthday trip. I could see the confusion and terror in Sophie's eyes as she watched her grandmother screaming and I knew this was traumatizing her in a way that might take years to undo.

I immediately told Sophie to go to her room and close the door, but she was already crying and asking what was wrong with Grandma, and I could see how confused and scared she was by the whole situation. David tried to step in and ask my mom to calm down so we could talk inside, but she just started yelling at him too and saying that he had turned me against my own family, and that before he came along I would never have abandoned Lisa when she needed help the most. The thing that shocked me the most was hearing my mom say that what Lisa did wasn't a big deal and that we should have just let her take Sophie to Disneyland instead of involving the police.

She kept insisting that Lisa was just oppressed and trying to create some positive memories to make up for losing Emma and Tyler and that we were overreacting by treating it like a serious crime. I tried to explain that regardless of Lisa's mental state or family relationships, she did was intentional kidnapping that involved lying to Sophie and deceiving our entire family, but my mom just talked over me and said I was being dramatic. She actually said that if I had been a better sister and more supportive of Lisa during her divorce, none of this would have happened because Lisa wouldn't have felt so desperate to connect with Sophie.

That's when I lost my temper and told my mom that Lisa lost Emma and Tyler because of her own choices, her drug use, her neglect of her children, and her affair with her dealer, and that those kids are better off without such a selfish parent. I said that Lisa's problems are not my responsibility to fix and that my only responsibility is protecting Sophie from people who might hurt her, even if those people are family. David had been trying to stay calm and polite up until that point, but when my mom started blaming us for Lisa's situation he finally snapped and told her that she was enabling Lisa's behavior and that he wanted to see Lisa locked up for as long as possible. He said that anyone who would kidnap a child and lie to them about their parents deserved to be

in prison and that he didn't care if Lisa was family or not. That's when my mom delivered her ultimatum, which honestly felt like a slap in the face though I should have seen it coming. She told me that I had a choice to make between supporting Lisa by dropping the charges, or being cut off from the family completely and losing any inheritance when she dies. She said she couldn't look at my face anymore knowing that I was willing to destroy my sister's life over what she called a misunderstanding. My mom actually compared me to a vicious animal for not protecting Lisa, and she said that I would regret ruining Lisa's life when I'm older and realized that family is all that matters. She told me that I was being influenced by David to turn against my own

blood, and that she was ashamed to have raised such a cold daughter who would send her own sister to prison. The whole confrontation lasted maybe 20 minutes, but it felt like hours, and by the end of it Sophie was sobbing in her room and David was so angry I thought he might actually physically kick her out. I finally told my mom that she needed to leave immediately and that if she ever showed up at our house again screaming in front of Sophie, I would call the police on her too. After she left, David and I decided that we need to install security cameras around our house because we don't feel safe anymore knowing that my mom is this angry and might come back, or that she might tell Lisa things that could put us in danger when Lisa eventually gets out of jail.

We spent the next day researching security systems and we're having cameras installed next week that will cover our entire property and send alerts to our phones if anyone approaches the house. I'm devastated that my relationship with my mom has come to this, but I refuse to compromise Sophie's safety just to keep peace in the family. David keeps saying that we're doing the right thing and that anyone who can't understand why we're protecting our child doesn't deserve to be in our lives, and I think he's right even though it's breaking my heart. Update 3. Three months later. The court hearing finally happened last week and I wanted to update everyone on how everything turned out because so many people have been following this situation. and offering support throughout this whole nightmare. Lisa's trial was scheduled for early February and my mom had actually hired lawyers to defend

which didn't surprise me given how she had been acting since the kidnapping happened. But it did hurt to know that she was willing to spend thousands of dollars to help Lisa avoid consequences while refusing to acknowledge the trauma that Sophie had experienced. Lisa's defense team tried to portray her as a grieving, mentally ill woman who was just trying to save Sophie's birthday when she realized. that David and I were too busy with work to take her to Disneyland ourselves. And they brought in character witnesses who testified about how much Lisa loved children and how devastating it had been for her to lose custody of Emma and Tyler.

The problem with that strategy was that the evidence against Lisa was overwhelming and her story kept changing every time she tried to explain. Hi, I'm Darren Marler, host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Sfreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record host and distribute your show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insert insert ads into your episodes.

No editing required. And with Spreaker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career. Sprinker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue. stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Sprinker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your

show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out spreeker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R.com. The prosecution had records of all the hotel bookings and ticket purchases that proved Lisa had been planning this for weeks, they had testimony from Sophie about the lies Lisa told her during the trip, and they had video footage from the arrest that showed Lisa fighting with police officers and resisting when they tried to stop her car. They also had phone records showing that Lisa had been in contact with my mom about the plan for weeks before the kidnapping, which contradicted both of their claims that this was a spontaneous decision made out of desperation. Lisa actually took the

stand in her own defense and tried to claim that she thought David and I had given her permission to take Sophie, but when the prosecutor asked her to explain why she had told Sophie that we were too busy to take her ourselves, she couldn't come up with a coherent answer. She kept insisting that she was just trying to help and that she never meant to hurt anyone, but her explanation made no sense given all the lying and deception that had been involved, and I could see the jury looking skeptical every time she tried to justify her actions. At one point she started crying in talking about how much she missed Emma and Tyler, and how taking Sophie to Disneyland was supposed to help her feel like a good aunt since she couldn't be a mother

anymore. The judge clearly saw through Lisa's manipulation and lies, and during sentencing he specifically mentioned that Lisa's complete lack of remorse and her attempts to portray herself as the victim were concerning indicators that she might repeat this behavior if given the opportunity. He said that taking a child across state lines without parental permission while lying to that child about their parents' consent was a serious crime that warranted significant punishment. Lisa was sentenced to three years in prison for kidnapping and an additional six months for resisting arrest, so she'll be locked up for at least two and a half years total. The judge also issued a four years restraining order that prohibits Lisa from having any contact with Sophie or coming within 500 feet of our house, our workplaces, or Sophie's school. What I didn't mention in my previous updates is that we also filed for restraining orders against my mom, and those were granted as well.

The court recognized that my mom's behavior during the confrontation at our house and her ongoing attempts to pressure us into dropping charges against Lisa constituted harassment and posed a threat to our family. family's safety and well-being. The judge specifically noted that my mom's failure to protect Sophie when she knew about Lisa's kidnapping plan, combined with her continued enabling of Lisa's behavior and her threats me if I didn't drop the charges, demonstrated a pattern of putting Lisa's once above Sophie's safety and welfare. The restraining order against my mom is also four years and includes the same distance restrictions as Lisa's. Having both restraining orders in place has given our family a sense of security that we haven't felt since this whole situation started. Sophie has been doing much better now that she knows neither Lisa nor my mom can contact

her or show up at our house unexpectedly, and David has finally been able to return without constantly worrying about our safety. David and I have been going to couples counseling as well because this whole experience put a lot of stress on our marriage and forced us to confront some difficult questions about how to handle toxic family members and protect our daughter from people who might hurt her.