Reddit Stories - Took in my nephew during his PARENTS' SEPARATION, but he RECORDED and teased

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #parentingwoes #betrayal #familybonding #trustissuesSummary: Took in my nephew during his parents' separation, but he recorded and teased. Struggling to navigate the delicate balance between family loyalty and setting boundaries in this challenging situation.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familydrama, parentingwoes, betrayal, familybonding, trustissues, nephew, separation, recording, teasing, familyloyalty, boundaries, challenging, situation, relationships, support, adviceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Took him my nephew during his parents' separation, but he recorded and teased my child with practical jokes and hidden clips for his social media posts, so I asked him to leave, and now my son did something that made everyone in my family angry at us. I'm 36F. I have three kids. My oldest is 14M, then 10F, then 7M. My husband is 38M.

We live in a place where people know each other. same schools, same teachers, same coaches. My sister lives across town. My husband's sister lives two exits away. It's all close enough that everyone hears things fast. My niece is 17. Her parents are in a divorce that has been going for months and keeps getting dragged, hearings, filings, that kind of thing. She didn't want to be in either house for a while so she came to us. I said yes because I remember that feeling when adults are in a fight and the kids get stuck in the middle. We set up the sofa bed in the room off the kitchen. She brought a ring light, tripods, boxes of clothes, a toad of makeup, chargers.

Her phone had notifications non-stop. She has around 200K on TikTok. I didn't get what that meant in day-to-day terms until she was here. Every hour she was filming or planning to film, stitching other videos, checking comments. She asked me to be in a dance thing once and I said I didn't want to be in anything. I told her no filming any kid without me or my husband saying okay and the kids saying okay. My 14-year-old is the one who keeps to himself and focuses on school. He gets home, eats, goes to his room, and works on kits and projects.

Electronics kits, coding, radio kits. He does Science Olympiad. He has one or two kids he texts about homework but he doesn't hang out. after school much. He likes routine. He doesn't like group chats. He doesn't like attention. He will go along with things because he doesn't want conflict. He speaks softly. He will say yes to be polite and then feel stuck. After a week of my niece being with us, she started asking him to be in little skits. He said no a few times. I heard him. But then I saw he was in one, holding a beaker from one of his kits and she did a thing where she pretended it was a love potion and he acted all

awkward. Comments called him nerd boy and stuff that made him feel like a prop. He told me it was fine. I said again no posting of anyone without consent. And if he says no, that's no. She said he did say yes. I asked him and he did say yes. He looked at the floor. I should have been stricter then. She kept filming around the house. My younger two liked it at first because the phone was on them and they got to do dances and transitions. I told her faces only when I'm there and only if the kids say yes and only if it's nice. I used those words. I kept repeating them because I thought if I kept the rule simple then it would be clear. Things got worse fast. She filmed my son sleeping and dumped water on him. Ice water from a big cup.

He woke up gasping and shivering and she laughed and said it was a prank and he would get views and she would tag him. He was confused and then angry and then quiet. He went to the bathroom and shut the door. I was at work when this happened so I only saw it after it was up. She posted it and wrote a caption like Wake Up Science Boy with laughing emojis. Comments came in. Lomau.

Who is he? He looks like a creep. This is why he doesn't have a GF. I made her take it down when I got home. She argued that everyone does prank videos. I said not in this house and never on a sleeping person and never with a minor without the parent. She took it down.

I thought that was it. Then there were more. I didn't know about them because she would post while I was doing bedtime or making dinner or at work. Eight videos total. I only learned after. was him in his room dancing to a song he listens to when he needs to get energy out. He doesn't dance in front of people. She recorded through the crack in the door and zoomed in.

It had a caption that called him weird cousin and said caught him dancing alone. There were screen grabs of his face. Half a million views across those. A duet of someone doing a fake crush face. People saying ugly creepy. Other words I won't type here because they stuck in my head and I don't want them in his head again. How did I find out? My son came home from school with his hood up and went straight to his room. I knocked and he didn't answer. I thought he needed time. Then my middle child came in and said kids were laughing at him in the hallway and someone held up a phone with his face on it. I went to his room and he was under the blanket. I sat on the floor and asked him to tell me. He said he was at lunch and someone showed him the video of him dancing

and the water thing. He didn't know it was online. He said he had kids in class making the song noise when the teacher turned to write on the board. He said someone called him a name. He cried in a way I haven't seen since he was little. He said he didn't want to go back to school. He said he didn't want to be seen. He said he felt sick and then he refused dinner and breakfast and said he wasn't hungry. I booked an appointment with his therapist. I emailed the counselor at school. I I brought him water. I sat outside his door. I confronted my niece right away when I pieced it together. She said it was just a joke and he should be grateful for the attention. She said traffic helps accounts. She said if he leaned into it he could sell merch. I was trying to listen and I just

stopped. I told her to delete every video with him in it, every photo, every clip, and send me screenshots showing they were gone. I told her to pack her things. I texted my sister and said I'm bringing her. I drove her over that night. She cried on the way and said I was ruining her career. I kept my eyes on the road and told her I care about my kid first. I texted my sister screenshots. My sister was in shock and said she would talk to her. I went home. I told my husband everything. We agreed on no more access to the house for her without me and him both present and only to get her mail or if there is an emergency. We changed the Wi-Fi password. We put a camera alert on the porch. The next day I reached out to TikTok to report those videos.

Some were already down. I went through the account and blocked any clip that had his face. He stayed in his room. He wouldn't look at me. He put his kits away. He turned his computer off. He didn't want the radio kid on his desk. He told me he was done. He said people would always see him as that guy in those clips. I told him I was sorry. I told him none of this was his fault.

I told him he didn't do anything wrong by dancing in his own room or sleeping in his own bed or saying yes once because he didn't know what he was saying yes to. I offered to take him out of school for a few days. He said yes. I called the attendance line. I called his therapist again and they moved him up. He ate toast and a banana and that was it. I asked the school if any filming happened at school.

They said they didn't know but they would check. I told them if any kid filmed him we would file a report. They said phones are not allowed in class and they would remind teachers. I asked them to speak with the kids who were sharing the clips. They said they would call parents. I don't know how much they can do, but I wanted it on record. I keep replaying the water thing in my head because I wasn't there. I think about the exact feeling of waking up wet and confused, and that someone you live

with did that to you. And then you go to school and kids have seen your face and comments tell you what your face is. I keep thinking that I should have taken her phone the night of the first video, or sent her to my sisters right away, or checked her account every night. I keep thinking that if you tell a kid you love them and you protect them, then you have to act fast and I acted one day too slow. My husband said we did the right thing by kicking her out and that we can't control what she

does from her own house now, but we can protect our house. His sister said we were overreacting and that kids post everything that our son needs to learn to take a joke. She said boys talk like that online and we can't police the internet. I told her to stop. I told her this wasn't a light prank. I told her about the eating and the school refusal. She said he will be fine.

I stopped talking to her for a bit after that because I didn't want to say something I couldn't take back. So that's where I was when I first wrote this, trying to figure out if I went too far by kicking out my niece. I don't think I did. Maybe there is more I should do. I keep asking myself if I am the one who said all this in motion by letting her stay at all.

But I also know that I saw a kid in a hard place and I said, come here, and I gave her a roof and a door that locked in food and rides and rules. She broke a rule and hurt my kid. I picked my kid. I would pick him every time. I know that part is right. Update 1. This part is going to sound like a twist, but it's just what happened over the next couple of weeks and I didn't even know about it until after. My son has a Reddit account. He reads science subs and coding subs and sometimes school subs. He doesn't post much. He was scrolling and found a thread where people were talking about a group chat that had posted screenshots from a private Instagram story.

And it was kids in our area making fun of another kid. The comments in that thread included screenshots of a group chat that had my niece and my husband's sister's daughter in it. That daughter is 18 and was set to go to an Ivy school on early decision. The chat had them calling him names. Stalker vibe. They shared memes of his face from the dancing video. They were planning a reaction video series where they would overact and pretend to be scared of him.

I didn't see any of this while it was happening because he didn't tell me. He screenshotsed everything. Without telling us, he emailed the college admissions office that had accepted my husband's sister's daughter. He put the screenshots in the email. He explained that he was the kid in the videos and that this was targeted. He didn't exaggerate. He listed dates and links.

He said he was sending this because he saw her name in the chat and saw that she encouraged these posts. He said this was bullying and that he was struggling with school and eating because of it. He signed his name. He didn't send it from a shared account. He did this on his own. A week later the college responded to him and also sent a notice to my husband's sister's daughter that they were reviewing conduct and expected behavior.

Then they rescinded her early decision. They said student conduct expectations apply from the time of application through enrollment, and that they had reviewed the screenshots and her other public activity and decided she did not meet the standard. I learned this because my husband's sister called me screaming. She said we had raised a tattletail. She said we destroyed her kid's future. She said family protects family. She said we are teaching our son to be weak.

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She named me without naming me. She said I should be ashamed. I didn't know my son had sent the email. I asked him why he didn't tell me and he said he wanted to do something that had wait and that this was the only thing he could think of that would make people see that this was not just a joke. He said he wasn't trying to ruin anyone. He said he just wanted it to stop and to matter to someone. I didn't know what to say. I told him I hear him. I told him he had a right to speak for himself. I told him I wished he had told me so I could help him word it and make sure he felt safe after. He said he knew I would have told him not to do it. He wasn't wrong. I don't know if I would have told him not to do it, but I would have worried about fallout and tried to slow it down.

He was tired of slowing it down. My husband is stuck in the middle with his sister. He said, said to her that our son is a person and that what her daughter did had consequences and that the school made the call. She said words back, I won't print. My phone kept lighting up with her posts and tags. She said we are raising a snitch and that boys need to roll with it. She said girls get called names online every day and no one rescinds anything. She threw in that my niece only did what gets views and that he should have enjoyed the clout. People commented under her posts, some egging her on, some telling her to stop. A couple family members messaged me to say they were sorry she was saying all that. I set her to limit it on Facebook. Then I logged out

for a while because reading it made my stomach twist. The school counselor called to check in on my son and also asked if we knew anything about an email to a college because there were whispers. We confirmed. The counselor said it isn't the school's business what happens at colleges, but that from a safety standpoint my son should have support because kids talk. We set up a plan for later rivals and early pickups for a while. His therapist added a second session that week. We look at food in tiny pieces now. He eats toast with jam and soup and smoothies.

I'm writing numbers on a notepad so I don't lose track of what he has in a day. I'm not going to share those numbers because it's no one's business except that we're paying attention. Update 2 My husband's sister hired a lawyer She filed a complaint with the college She said the screenshots were out of context She said my son made false claims to destroy her daughter She said I manipulated him into emailing

She said we defamed her She threatened to sue Reddit for some reason Because the threat had screenshots I saw a copy of what she sent Because she forwarded it to half the family with CCS like it was a work memo. The college declined her appeal. They said they reviewed everything, including the context she provided, and they stand by their decision. They cited their policy for conduct and social media. She wrote back with more all-caps lines. They didn't answer again.

Now her daughter is trying to apply to other schools. The Common App asks if you have ever had an offer rescinded. She has to check yes. Deadlines have passed for a lot of places. She is sending emails to admissions offices and getting replies like we wish you well. I feel bad for any kids stuck in the middle of adult fights. I also think that actions have weight and that you don't get to call someone a freak and push a meme of their face around and then say it's just a joke when it lands with real harm. Both things can sit in my head. I can feel bad for a teenager who lost something and still not take the blame for what my son did to tell the truth about what she and others did to him. The lawyer piece kept going for a bit.

She said she would sue us for defamation. I talked to a lawyer too, just to be safe. They said there is nothing there. Truth is a defense. Screenshots are evidence. Minors have protections too. Also, I didn't publish the screenshots. My son sent them to a college where she had an existing relationship as an applicant. I took notes and put away money in case we needed to respond to something formal. My niece sent me a text that said sorry. No punctuation. I didn't answer. I don't know what to say to a one-word text after all of this. My son is still home most days. The school is working with us. Teacher sent notes that he can turn and work late and that they will grade with grace. He sits with his laptop and does assignments in little bits.

Sometimes he stares at the screen and then closes it. Sometimes he does three quizzes and mails them to me like he needs proof that he did something. There are days with two meals and days with one and days with three. I'll take the three days as a sign that he felt okay for a moment. We turned off comments on all our personal social. We made our accounts private. My younger two are off TikTok completely. They didn't fight it as much as I expected.

My daughter said she misses the dances but she doesn't miss the phone in her face. My little one went outside and built a Lego spaceship and asked me to film it. I said I would send it to Grandma and no one else. He was fine with that. Update 3. First, my son's school set up a meeting with the principal, counselor, two teachers, me, and my husband. They offered homebound instruction for a few weeks. They also offered to switch him out of two points.

classes where the worst comments were coming from. He nodded and said yes to the class changes. He said no to homebound because he wants to try to go back in person next week for two periods and see how it feels. We set it up so I can drop him off for a second and pick him up before lunch. He wrote that plan out in a notebook himself. He said seeing it in his handwriting helps. We put the notebook on the fridge. He gets to draw a line through a day if it felt okay. On the first day he wrote went in, sat by door, left early. He drew a line through it. He put the pen down and didn't say anything.

I told him I saw it. Second, we met with a therapist who does work with teens who have been harassed online. She gave him steps for exposure to the Internet again that doesn't involve doom scrolling. Five minutes at a time on a site that is not tied to faces. He picked a physics forum. He posted a question about a problem from a practice test. Someone answered with formulas and no comments about him. He said, thank you.

That was it. He smiled in a way that wasn't big or showy. It was just there for a second. I caught it and then looked away so he wouldn't feel watched. Third, my niece posted an apology video. It was a notes app screen and her voiceover. She said she is sorry to anyone hurt by my content. She said she is taking time to reflect.

She did not say my son's name. The comments were split. Some said she shouldn't have to apologize. Some said she didn't really apologize. She deleted it after a day. She texted me again with three lines this time. Auntie, I'm sorry. I didn't get how bad it was.

Can I talk to him? I showed the text to my son. He said not now. He said maybe later, with his therapist. I told her that. She sent a thumbs up and hasn't pushed since. My husband's sister is still angry. She filed a complaint with the district saying we are making a hostile environment for her

daughter because other cousins won't talk to her now. The district sent a generic letter back saying this is a family matter. She posted the letter and said the system is rigged. I muted her again. I keep thinking about how much. time she spends writing posts and I wish she would put that time into sitting with her kid and making a plan. I know that thought is petty. I'm tired. There was also a call from child services. An anonymous report said I was neglecting my son because he lost weight and wasn't going to

school. The worker came by. I had a folder with doctor notes, therapist notes, the school plan, a food log, and a list of appointments. She looked through everything. She looked in the pantry. She asked my son if he feels safe. He said yes. She closed the file. She said this happened sometimes when family fights spill over. I don't know who made the call.

I have a guess. I'm not going to say it out loud. My son and I went to the garage and pulled out a box of kits and tools. We sorted them. I didn't tell him to. He just opened the box and set things. in rows. We chose a project that is simple and a steps you can check off. He put together two boards and tested a circuit. The light blinked. He wrote blink on a scrap of paper and

taped it to the board. He didn't say anything. I said nothing. We left it on the table. Later that night my little one wandered in and asked what it was and my son said it blinks and showed him. They watched it blink for a while. I stood in the doorway and then went back to the sink because I didn't want to hover. We also met with the school resource officer about the videos. He said because some of the filming happened in our home without consent, we could file a report. He explained what would happen. It felt heavy. We decided to hold off because my niece took the videos down and because my son said the last thing he wants is cops showing up at his cousin's house. I told him we can change our minds later. The officer gave us a card

and told us to email if any new videos appear. He also said to keep everything backed up. I have a folder with dates and screenshots and links. I bought an external drive and copied it all there. I don't like that I have to keep this, but I will. Money-wise, therapy is adding up. We adjusted the budget. I'm cutting back on takeout.

We had rice and eggs and veggies this week more than once. my son asked for toast with peanut butter for dinner one night and I said sure and added apple slices. We're trying to make food simple and not a battle. I'm tracking sleep too. He sleeps in stretches. Sometimes he is up late. I stopped trying to force a lights-out time because it made him more tense. We care more about total sleep in a 24-hour period than exact hours at night right now. Some people will ask if he learned anything from sending that email. I asked him that. He said he learned that he can act and that people will call him names for acting and that some systems will listen and some will not. He said he doesn't feel proud or ashamed. He just

feels like he did something that had a result. He said he doesn't want to be the kid who got someone's offer taken away as his label. I told him we don't have to be labels. We can be what we do next. He said that sounded like a poster in a guidance office. We both laughed a little. It was a short laugh, but it counted. I also called my sister again. I told her I need to know that when my niece is with her she is getting limits around online stuff.

My sister said yes. She said she is meeting with a counselor with my niece. They are putting her phone in the kitchen at night. They are doing community service at the library. Good. I don't know if any of it sticks. I hope it does. I don't hate my niece. I don't want harm for her. I just don't want her near my son right now. That is the line.