She Told Her Niece’s Parents That She’s No Longer Taking Her To Conventions Where She Sells Her Art, Since The Last Time She Did That, Her Niece Cost Her A Ton of Business
Have you ever had a family member steal your limelight? Was it a younger family member? One woman had to put her foot down after her niece’s parents kept trying to take away her customers and clientele as an artist and steer them toward their daughter’s work instead.
She’s a hard-working artist who earns a living by selling her artwork at fan conventions like ComicCon.
She’s invested a lot of time and money into her art and has finally found a sweet spot where she can earn a good living doing what she loves.
Her uncle has a young daughter that she refers to as her niece. Her niece recently started expressing an interest in art and wants to become an artist like her.
She’s really into drawing anime characters, and asked her to install the drawing program she uses on her iPad.
She recently had a large, high-paying convention to attend, where she set up a table and sold her artwork throughout the weekend.
Her aunt and uncle asked if she could bring her niece and let her sell some of her work as well. Wanting to be supportive, she agreed and said her niece could have a small section of her table.
What she didn’t realize was that her niece would end up stealing a lot of her customers.
“She stood in front of my table, directing people to her prints,” she recalled.
Manu Reyes – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“I lost a lot of sales. People wanted to look at her art and coo at the adorable child, [and] that resulted in people blocking my table.”
Frustrated with her niece taking up all the attention, she told her aunt and uncle she’d no longer be able to watch her niece at the convention since she had to run her table.
So, the following day, her aunt and uncle brought her niece themselves. Then, things got even worse.
“They blocked the table and accosted anyone who came up, interrupting people buying from me, to talk about niece,” she said.
“I was stressed and tired. I’m ashamed I barely stood up for myself. Every time I tried, I was told off. I had a panic attack all Saturday as potential customers were grabbed away by my aunt and uncle.”
Her aunt and uncle were disappointed in her behavior and didn’t show up with her niece on the third day of the convention.
By then, a lot of the chaos had died down, so she ended up making a lot less money than she usually does by the end of the weekend.
Later, her aunt and uncle said they wanted her niece to attend the next convention she works at, and they wanted her to give her more table space for her art.
While she’s proud of her niece, she can’t afford to keep sharing her space with her. She had to tell them no.
“I put my foot down,” she explained.
“If this was another job, you couldn’t force a ‘take your niece to work day.’ But because art is a ‘hobby,’ they’ve pushed the boundary. They argued I should be a role model.”
Her aunt and uncle also told her she was jealous of her niece and afraid of the competition. They also called her selfish for thinking her art was better than her niece’s.
That’s when she told them her art is better than her nieces and it should be since she’s an adult making a living off it.
She doesn’t want to compromise her success to quickly advance her niece’s career, which infuriates her aunt and uncle.
She offered to help her niece set up at smaller art fairs so she could learn to promote her work, but they weren’t having it.
Now, her relatives are very mad at her.
Was she wrong to say her niece couldn’t sell her art with her, or did she make a wise decision for her business?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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