Reddit Stories - Took care of my AILING FACTORY while her four kids DISREGARDED her, so

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #worklifebalance #parentingwoes #neglectedchildren #factorylifeSummary: A woman juggles caring for her ailing factory while her four kids disregard her. Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, family, work, life, balance, parenting, neglected, children, factory, dramaBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Took care of my ailing factory while her four kids disregarded her, so she bequeathed me all her possessions and now my spouse and his brothers and sisters are asking me to divide it. With them or he will divorce me. So, for context, my mother-in-law Sharon had four children. My brother-in-law, Jacob, 38M, is the oldest and then there is my husband, Nate, 34M. And then there are my sisters-in-law, Zoe.

and Becky, who are twins, 27F. My father-in-law passed away in an accident shortly after the twins were born and since then, Sharon has raised them all on her own. And she didn't just raise them by herself, she also took over her husband's company and stepped into his position at work. I've always admired her and she and I had a great relationship. About six months ago, she was diagnosed with brain cancer and it was already in its advanced stages. Unfortunately, had hardly been any symptoms, and by the time we found out, it was out of control. Everyone was very upset about it, but I was the only one who stepped up and said that I would go stay with her so I could take care of her.

Nate was not happy about it at all because staying with her meant that I would have to move two states away and we were having a hard time in our marriage anyway, so this was not what we needed right now. We argued about it endlessly for a few weeks, but I made it clear to him that I was going to stay with her no matter what. I even insisted that he come with me but he told me that he couldn't just abandon his work and fly off to be with his mother. Besides, he brought up the fact that his siblings could be there with her, but unfortunately, they didn't seem to care much either. At least Nate and I lived out

of state, so he had a somewhat valid reason. So I argued with him and I told him that since his work required him to travel very frequently, it's not even like he would miss me when was not around. So finally, I got him to agree. During the time that I spent with my mother-in-law, taking care of her, I noticed that hardly any of her kids would visit her, and even when they would, they would always seem like they were in a hurry to leave and get back to their normal lives. It felt like they were visiting more out of a sense of obligation or duty that they visited her rather than out of love and concern, and that just seemed very strange to me.

Anyway, I have spent the past few months with Sharon, taking care of her and just being there for her emotionally because for the most part, she did have a nurse to stay with her during the day. I didn't do it because I expected something out of it, I just did it because as somebody who had lost her own mother to cancer when I was 16, I just really wanted to be there for her. But her health only got worse with time, which was not unexpected, but it was still really difficult to deal with. Anyway, two weeks ago, she passed away after a particularly rough few days. I was the one who organized the funeral with my husband, since he had decided to be there with me during her last few days, unlike the others. Three days after the funeral, since the family was still

together in one city, her lawyer got us all together and told us that she had emailed the details of the will to everyone and even told us all about it in person as well. And I really wish that hadn't happened because Sharon left her entire estate to me and it's caused a lot of drama in the family and even in my marriage. I have mentioned that Sharon took over her husband's company after his passing, which means that she's been doing quite well for herself and all the money left over after covering her medical expenses has come to me. I have also inherited her house, all her jewelry, and other expensive assets. As soon as her lawyer announced it, the rest of the family was shocked for a couple of minutes before they started going off about how unfair all of this

was. I didn't want to speak to them at the time, so I just left the room but they stayed in in Sharon's study for about half an hour more and I could hear raised voices from the room, including Nates. But I couldn't hear what they were talking about and neither did I want to find out because I was sure that it couldn't have anything pleasant. Anyway, eventually, they left without even saying goodbye to me and finally, Nate came to me. He also seemed really shocked that his mother had left everything to me and nothing to her children, but he still tried to be nice to me initially, saying that I deserved it because I was the only one who had been by her side ever since her diagnosis. He had visited a couple of times over the past couple of months,

but that hadn't been nearly enough to compare to what I had done for her. So I thought that he would be more understanding than his siblings, but after he was done appreciating me, he told me that in spite of that, he still thought that it was weird of his mother to leave everything to me and told me that he had discussed it with his siblings, and they believed that to make everything fair, I needed to split everything with them equally. I found it really shocking, the way he just casually informed me that I would need to do this, and given the fact that it had been a discussion between him and his siblings, I hadn't even been included in it. I didn't think it was necessary for me to agree, and so, I didn't.

I told him that there were still a couple of months to go before I actually inherited anything since the will was in probate for now and when I finally did get what my mother-in-law had left me, I would think about it then, but as of now, I'm not planning on promising and that was all it took. He immediately started yelling at me about how selfish I was being and told me that I had no right to snatch away what rightfully belonged to him and his siblings. That did not sit right with me because I was not snatching anything away from anyone, and as for what rightfully belongs to them, I think that was for Sharon to decide, and seems to me she had made up her mind. So I fought back and soon enough, we were in a shouting match. He and I had already been having a really hard time with each other for the past couple of years, which was a tiny part of the reason why I'd wanted to move in with Sharon, just so that I would have some time away from him.

Coming to the reason why we had been having so much trouble in our marriage, was mostly because he wanted children and I wasn't ready yet. His work has always required him to travel a lot and he hardly ever stayed home, so I knew that, even if we did end up having kids, I would be the one who would end up taking care of them most of the time because we didn't have any relatives where we lived and nannies were pretty expensive. And as a working woman, I couldn't afford to drop everything and quit because we needed the money, and also because I did not think it was a good idea for me not to be financially independent. So I had been postponing it and he kept arguing that we couldn't just delay it forever because biology was a thing. And I would end up arguing

that if he wanted to have kids, he would have to devote more time to his family than his job. And he would tell me that we needed money and since my job was work from home, I didn't have to worry about who would take care of the baby because I wouldn't be at home anyway. We just kept arguing in circles over and over again and so, our relationship had become quite bitter but we wanted to make it so we've been together until now. But things changed after the last fight that we had because he called me selfish and he even threatened to leave me if I did not share my inheritance with him and his siblings, saying that my decision would definitely have an effect on our marriage so I should think twice before doing anything. So I told him that I didn't care what

he and his siblings thought of me and he got really angry and walked out, and we haven't spoken since then. It's been a week in a few more days since the fight and I have been staying in Sharon's house. Jacob, Zoe, and Becky have dropped in a couple of times to convince me to share their inheritance with them but all I've said to them is that I'll think about it because I don't want to commit to anything that I'm not ready for. I feel really selfish doing this and I honestly don't know how to go ahead but the one thing that I am sure of is that Sharon's kids really never deserved her. When she was sick, I was the only person who had constantly been there by her side. and I had done it because I really loved and admired this person.

Her other kids seemed very disinterested so now she has left everything to me, it doesn't seem unfair to me at all. I've spoken to my dad as well, and he thinks that her other children are not wrong for expecting me to share the inheritance. It's ultimately my decision what I want to do with it. And if I'm being honest, I'm leaning towards keeping it all for myself because it's a lot of money, and with this, I can start my own company. I had been planning for a couple of years, but I had always tried to wait for the right time.

Now that I have all the resources, I can quit my job without worrying about the money and start working on my business model. I know that this will make Nate and his siblings very unhappy, but I don't think that's my problem. And about Nate, I have been thinking about parting with him because I've tried my best to make it work, but I don't think he cares about me. Things are not the same as they used to be and I know that marriage changes stuff, people lose lose the spark and things like that, but people always make it through it with some hard work. So far, the only person who seems interested in putting in that hard work is me and not him. And it's not about the money, I wouldn't have had any issues sharing that money

with him if he had just been polite and nice about it. But he was acting as if he was entitled to it, which he really wasn't because it was his mother's hard-earned money, and if she had decided to leave it to me, it obviously meant that she felt closer to me than the rest of her children. It was just his tone and attitude that I had an issue with, but other than that, I would have gladly shared my inheritance with my husband, of all people. But anyway, I've just been very confused about what to do and I feel like I'm being a selfish human being right now. I don't even want to discuss this with my friends because it feels weird. So Ida for not wanting to share my inheritance with my husband and his siblings? And for wanting to leave him? So since people

wanted a little more context about my work, it's a proper corporate job and literally the only difference is that I can work remotely. They implemented this after the pandemic and for some reason, Nate seems to think that just because I can work from home, it means that I'm free to take care of the baby whenever we have one. I'm just exhausted, trying to explain to him that I'm still going to have to work after my maternity leave is over, and if I don't have him by my side to help me out, it's going to be very difficult for me, which is why I'm not ready to have the baby right now. He earns more than me, so he thinks that his job is the only one that's more important, and even though he hasn't ever actually said that, I can tell that that's what he thinks

from the way he behaves whenever we argue about this. He constantly keeps telling me that I'm making excuses by bringing up my work and when I try to tell him that I really don't need him by my side when I have a baby and if he can't promise me that, I can't commit to having a baby because it's a huge deal that's not going to affect my body, but my entire life. He always dismisses and tells me that I'm overreacting, and occasionally, he has even told me that I'm just trying to get out of starting a family. Here's the deal, I want a baby as much as he does, but I also want the commitment from him that he's going to cut down on time at work. If he can't promise to me, I don't understand how it's fair for him to expect that I'm going to give up my career instead.

It's been very frustrating to deal with that and more than anything. I hate the fact that he tries to make it seem like I'm making a bigger issue out of this, but the fact is that I'm going to have to sacrifice more than he does if we do end up having the baby under these circumstances. Every time that we could talk about these things, we would end up fighting, he would end up leaving and we wouldn't speak for a couple of days. But then, after he would come back from his business trip, he would pretend as if nothing had ever happened, and we would sweep it under the rug. And then once again, a couple of weeks later, we would end up fighting again and the cycle would continue. It has become toxic because neither of us is willing to compromise.

I'm just really tired of explaining these things to him, and after our last fight, where he basically threatened to dump me if I did not share my inheritance with all of them, I don't think he even loves me anymore. And even if he does love me, it's clear that he doesn't respect me as a human being. This is why I'm skeptical about staying with him in this marriage anymore because I can't keep trying to make it work with somebody who doesn't love or respect me. Update 1, I have made up my mind and I think I'm going to be filing for divorce now. It's been two weeks since I fought with Nate, and he still hasn't bothered to reach out to me.

After reading my own post, I have realized how alone I've been all this while. I feel terrible about everything, but I can't help it. I need to get away from this marriage for my own sake. The other thing that I've made up my mind about was a lot easier to accept. I'm definitely not going to be sharing my inheritance with anyone else. If Sharon did not leave anything to them, too bad, that's their problem and not mine. I don't have to feel guilty about anything because I'm the one who took care of her. I'm the one who was actually here for her while they were living their lives normally without

bothering about their own mother. And this is exactly what I told them when they started calling me selfish and stuff after I communicated my decision to them. I texted them all in the family group to let them know that I had made my decision and was not going to be sharing my inheritance and obviously, right after that, they started calling me all sorts of names and telling me that what I was doing was not acceptable and that they would take me to court and all of that. Even in all of that, Nate had nothing to say.

Anyway, I told the rest of them that if they wanted to take this to court, they were free to do that, but I didn't care. As long as it's up to me, I'm not going to be sharing anything with them and that's my final decision. Right after I said that they kicked me out of the group and since then, I haven't had any contact with anybody from Sharon's family. I'm pretty sure that she was around. She would hate them for what they were doing right now, but oh well. Her kids obviously did not receive any of her good qualities and it's very clear.

I already have her lawyer on hold. She knows everything that I'm going through and has agreed to represent me if they actually do take this to court. She's also said that she's going to put me in touch with a divorce attorney soon as well, and then I will go ahead with my divorce petition. It's not like I'm not happy about it, but I can't see any other way out of this. Update 2. I filed for divorce a couple of days ago. A lot of other things have also happened like Nate getting back in touch with me, but it was too late because I've already made up my mind about the divorce. It's been three weeks since my last update and earlier this week, before I

had filed for the divorce, he decided to send me a message, asking me if I actually intended on never speaking to him again. And it made me feel really bad because even now he thought that he was the victim here. I was the one who had been left all alone by him after our last fight, since he hadn't even bothered to speak to me. And yet he was pretending as if I was the one who was responsible for the situation. So I called him up and I told him that I couldn't do this anymore. I was sick of fighting so frequently and I just wanted out. I told him that I had already spoken to a lawyer and was going to file for divorce because I really couldn't understand how he constantly expected me to pretend as if everything was all right without ever making an effort

to fix things. I told him that I was tired of waiting for him to understand. what I was going through and at this point, it was pretty clear that he was not interested in anything or anybody's troubles apart from his own. So given the circumstances, it would be better for us to go our separate ways now. I was really hurt and I was trying hard not to cry. I tried to be as polite as I could too, but even that was not enough. He started yelling at me, telling me that I was being overdramatic and he knew that I was bluffing about getting a divorce, just because I wanted him to apologize to me and pretend that I was the victim in a situation that I myself had created. He told me that he didn't care for my theatrics, and while he was yelling at me,

I literally had to stop him to tell him that I actually intended on going through the divorce, and that I was not just being dramatic. I don't even know why he would think that because so far, no matter how much we have fought, I've never spoken about divorce because I've always wanted to make it work with him. But as soon as I told him that I was serious, he took a couple of seconds and went silent, and then he started to say that he should have seen this coming, that this was bound to happen and stuff, and when I asked him what he meant by that, he accused me of leaving him just because I was going to receive a huge inheritance now. I was shocked that he would even say something like that because our relationship hadn't been like that at any point. I was not the

kind of person to be with somebody for money. And obviously, I'm not the kind of person who would leave somebody for money either. The inheritance didn't even factor in here. It was his behavior that mattered to me and when he made that statement, I literally ended up crying because I couldn't hold back my tears anymore. I just couldn't believe that somebody whom I loved was saying such things about me and even while I was crying, he told me that he had no sympathy for me because I had turned out to be a horrible human being and he regretted ever getting married to me. So I lashed out at him and I told him that I was not the one who had changed because of money, he was. He was just jealous that his own mother had decided to choose me to inherit everything

that she owned instead of him or his siblings, and on top of that, he just couldn't deal with the fact that I actually didn't know it to them to share anything. So he could pretend that I was the bad guy here but deep down, even he knows that I'm entitled to do whatever I want. And he also knows that I'm not getting divorced because of the money, I'm getting divorced because of how he has been acting. I told him that if he regrets marrying me so much, then he shouldn't have a problem with this divorce because it's just giving him a chance to fix his mistakes. And mine too, and after that, I hung up and blocked him. It broke my heart to hear him say things like that about me because he was really harsh. I never would have expected something like that out of him.

Even though we have fought before, this was something different and I literally had never seen this ugly side of him. At this point, I don't even care if I'm being the bad guy by leaving him and I don't care if people find the timing of my divorce suspicious, which I am sure they will. I know my family is never going to say anything about it, but given the recent behavior, I'm sure that his siblings are going to have a lot to say about the fact that I'm trying to get divorced right after I got to know that I would be receiving an inheritance from my mother-in-law. They are definitely going to try and make something out of it, so I'm mentally prepared for that anyway. But ultimately, I really don't care what any of them say anymore because I've tried my

very best to be patient and understanding. However, the truth is that they didn't care about their mother when she was alive, and now that she's gone, all that they can talk about is the inheritance. It's just really pathetic. Update 3, so Nate was served with the divorce papers recently and of course, he must have told his siblings about it. Because for the past two days, my inbox has been flooded with hateful messages from all of them. It's very funny how until before they found out about the inheritance, all of them were all about minding their own business. They were siblings, but they didn't keep in touch much and had their own lives. And now, just because they have one target, they're acting like they are an inseparable family.

To be fair, calling this mob mentality would be better because all they want to do right now is gang up on me and make me feel bad about myself. I don't even know what they think they're going to achieve by doing this, but I've kept my nerve and I'm not going to let them get to me. Jacob and the twins have called me every single name in the book in the messages that they have sent me so far, from selfish, to manipulative, to drama queen, and whatnot. I didn't respond to any of them, though, I just blocked them all. I've still been staying in my mother-in-law's house, so with the exception of Nate, we are all in the same city and they can drop by whenever they want to. That's the only thing that I'm slightly worried about because, even though I'm going

to inherit this house, they still know where I live, and I really don't want them to come and harass me in person. The problem is, given their current behavior and attitude towards me, I wouldn't put it past them. Until now, they have restricted themselves to just sending messages, but now that they can't even do that since they have been blocked, I am concerned about what they might try to do in the future. But I'm trying to put some extra security measures in place and amp up the technology around the house since Sharon wasn't exactly a big believer of all that. But anyway, even if they do try to do something funny, I do have my lawyer with me and I'm going to make sure that they suffer the consequences. So far, there has been no indication that they are

going to take this to court and contest the will, but I am prepared for that too. If I'm being honest, I'm exhausted from worrying about all these things constantly and I'm just emotionally drained right now. But I know that I'll have to deal with it, so that's what I'm doing without any complaints. Thankfully, at least I still have my dad and a couple of good friends standing by my side so they're making this a bit easier for me. And for that, I'm grateful. Given the situation right now, I'm just glad to have anybody by my side at all since it feels like everyone has turned against me just because I'm not willing to be a doormat for them anymore. Update 4. Hi, I know that I have been inactive here for a really long time, but there's a lot

that's been going on in my life in the past few months. So I just really did. didn't have the time to post any updates but now that I do, let me fill you guys in on what's been happening. Firstly, of course, I've been very busy with my divorce because that's pretty much been the only thing on my mind recently. We are already done with the mediation and thankfully, we have been able to wrap it up so we are hoping for it to be finalized in three more months. We have divided everything and even though Nate was trying his best to get a part of the inheritance by painting me to be the bad guy, my lawyer and I were not having any of it. I don't think that he wanted to drag this out either, so he just let it go after one point.

He still hates me, I'm sure of that. But it doesn't matter anymore, I'm learning to let go of these things because I think he stopped loving me a really long time ago and I was the only one who had been holding on. Now, it's time for me to let it go. So that was that, and I've also officially moved into Sharon's house. I've had to change states for that, so there is a lot of red tape that I still have to deal with but I'll get it done eventually. And last week, I finally put in my resignation from work

so I can start working on my business model and I'm hoping to get started by next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hopefully, things will go well for me. Also, I was lucky enough not to be bothered by Nate's siblings after my last update. Not personally, at least. Because they did try to take me to court by contesting the will but I think the rest of the family talked some sense into them

and stopped them from wasting their money. I'm mostly referring to the relatives that my mother-in-law was close to since they have reached out to me in the past and have been very nice to me. They have also expressed how disappointed they are with how Sharon's kids have been behaving, especially considering the fact that they haven't even been there for her when she was sick and it was me all along. Sharon's family wouldn't even have been able to find out about what her children were trying to do, had it not been for their own big mouth. They were trying to paint me in a bad light and turn everyone against me by making it sound like I had manipulated Sharon into leaving everything to me and they had gone to

the extent of saying that I wasn't even actually there taking care of her since she had a nurse and I was just there to show off that I'm a great person. But everybody came to my defense because at least they had all been there for Sharon and had dropped by quite frequently when she was sick, so they knew me. And they told me that they had given Sharon's kids an earful and actually brought them to tears when they tried to turn them against me so I'm grateful for that because I'm guessing that that's what stopped them from taking the will thing too far. I don't think I would have been able to deal with that much drama in one go because I was also going through my divorce at the time. Anyway, things worked out and I'm going to focus on the future now.