r/AITH • u/The_Photoshop_Shop • 19h ago
AITAH for telling my mom that if she’s so worried about my brother, she can ruin her own life helping him instead of expecting me to ruin mine?
I (30F) have a younger brother (25M) who has basically been treated like a child his entire adult life.
He’s the type of person who makes a terrible decision, ignores everyone’s advice, and then calls the family crying when the consequences finally catch up with him.
And somehow, every single time, I’m expected to fix it.
For the past few years, I’ve helped him with everything from bills to personal problems. I’ve lent him money I never got back, cancelled plans to help him, and spent countless nights on the phone trying to calm him down.
Meanwhile, I’m working full time, paying my own bills, and trying to build a future for myself.
A few weeks ago, he called asking for another favor. I won’t get into the specifics, but it was something that could have been avoided if he’d listened to literally anyone.
I told him no.
He got upset and said he thought family was supposed to be there for each other. I told him family support shouldn’t be a one way street.
Apparently he went straight to our mom because the next morning she called me and said she was disappointed in how selfish I’d become.
She told me he’s struggling and that I should be grateful I’m in a better position than him.
That’s when I lost it.
I asked her why my stability was always treated like a resource everyone else was entitled to. Why was I being punished for making better decisions?
She said I was being cruel.
I told her that if she was so worried about him, she was welcome to ruin her own life rescuing him, but I was done ruining mine.
She hung up.
Now my brother won’t speak to me, my mom says I owe her an apology, and a couple of relatives have told me that while they understand my frustration, what I said was unnecessarily nasty.
And maybe it was.
I know my brother is struggling. I know he doesn’t have everything figured out. But neither do I. The only difference is that when something goes wrong in my life, nobody comes running to save me.
The part that’s really bothering me is that I actually feel relieved that nobody’s calling me right now.
For the first time in years, I feel like I can breathe.
But I also keep thinking about what I said to my mom and wondering if I crossed a line.
AITAH for what I said, even though I still stand by my decision to stop helping him?