For birthdays, graduations, and small victories, my parents always focused on my sister.
After years of feeling ignored, one man shared his story.
I have a sister who is six years older than me. For years, my parents canceled plans with me because of her.
I had a basketball game. “Oops, sorry, your sister doesn’t want to go out.” I was graduating. “Oops, sorry, your sister had a bad day at work.” They missed both big and small events in my life because of her problems.
When I met the love of my life and we decided to get married, I was worried my sister would ruin another special moment. My mom promised me that it wouldn’t happen.
On my wedding day, I got a voicemail from my mom saying they couldn’t come because my sister’s dog was sick and she was upset. I was heartbroken. My best man, who is a jokester, took my phone and asked my fiancée if he could post a video of our wedding as a gift on social media. She loved the idea.
I didn’t know about it until we got home. Our honeymoon was at a lakeside cabin with no cell service.
The post’s caption read, “My best friend. He is an amazing person, even if his parents NEVER showed up for him.” The video was a slideshow of us with her parents, me on the dance floor, and us cutting the cake. Where you would normally see both sets of parents in wedding pictures, there were only hers. The audio behind the video was my mom’s voicemail explaining why they couldn’t come.
When I got home a week later, I had hundreds of messages. Family members from both sides told me to take it down. They said my sister hadn’t stopped crying, and my mom wouldn’t leave the house.
Maybe I’m the jerk here. I didn’t take it down when I saw the messages. I didn’t call my family back right away. I waited until my vacation was over and enjoyed my time with my wife in our new home before contacting anyone.
My dad told me to take down the video. He said it was “just a bad night for them” and that they would make it up to me and my wife for not coming. I replied, “How do you plan to ’make up’ my wedding? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. You chose to ignore my feelings.”
He repeated that they would make it up to me. I told him I would take down the video only when he made up for missing my wedding. Frustrated, we both hung up before saying things we shouldn’t have.
People stood on his side.
- “The truth hurts sometimes and your parents & sister just got whammied! Your friend is AWESOME. Please leave the video up!”
- “Your friend didn’t manipulate their words, your parents would have nothing to cry about if they hadn’t done anything wrong! They skipped your wedding with one seriously pathetic excuse, let them feel the effects of that.”
- “Keep that video up until the end of time. Your parents need to be reminded just how much they failed you and favored your sister. Your family doesn’t like it, lucky for you, you just married into a new one.”