19-year-old refuses to see her 10-year-old sister because she kept destroying her stuff: 'She keeps screaming at me that I'm mean and the worst big sister ever.'

• 

  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• Am I the bad guy for refusing to see my little sister anymore because she keeps destroying my stuff?

  

• 

• 

• 

  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Her parents are being foolish by letting this behavior continue. It shouldn't fall on a teenage girl to punish her younger sister. The parents should forbid their youngest from entering her sister's room and revoke other privileges so she never tries anything like that again. But they clearly lack respect for their older daughter's possessions just as much as their younger daughter disrespects them. If they allow her to destroy things without stepping in to stop it, it's a tacit endorsement of her behavior.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• I would understand this excuse if this girl were a literal toddler, but she's far from it. She'll be in middle school in a year or two, and that is old enough to understand that it's not socially acceptable or morally sound to destroy someone else's things. It'd be different if she accidentally ruined her sister's clothes by borrowing them and scratching them up on the playground. That would be an age-appropriate honest mistake. Who among us hasn't gotten into an argument with our sister about whether we're allowed to borrow her clothes or not? But none of the "mistakes" this 10-year-old has made seem like accidents. They are incredibly intentional. If they weren't her sister's, the entire room wouldn't have destroyed everything in sight.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Things like this rarely resolve themselves, but putting distance between her and her sister is a great actionable step, and it's good she's taking it. It doesn't matter what her family members say: if they're unwilling to intervene, this is all she can really do to protect herself.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Tags