She Didn’t Want To Give Her Niece Money To Buy A Christmas Gift For Her Mother This Year Because Her Niece’s Mom Is Flakey And Never Actually Shows Up For Visitation
Since March of 2020, this 41-year-old woman has been raising her niece, 13, and nephew, 11.
Before this, her brother had had full custody of his children, but he tragically passed away suddenly from a heart attack.
In the years before he died, her brother made it clear that if he ever passed away or became very ill at a young age, he wanted her to be the one to raise his children.
About eight or 9 years ago, the mother of her brother’s children left them, so he went to court and was awarded full custody.
“She is trash, and that is putting it nicely. I’ll give her credit that when she found out about his death, she was very supportive of me gaining custody and raising the kids because she was too lazy/selfish to do so herself,” she said.
While she obviously adores her niece and nephew, they have suffered from a lot of trauma and demand her focus constantly.
Understandably, taking care of her brother’s children is exhausting, but she is dedicated to her role as their caregiver.
According to the custody agreement, her niece and nephew’s mother receives four hours of visitation each weekend.
Plus, their mother is required to pay her $400 per month in child support.
dikushin – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“She owes me over $10,000 in back child support. She has not seen the kids in over two years when she lives only about two hours away,” she explained.
Several times, their mother has texted her to let her know that she would be planning to visit, only to cancel.
Because their mother is so unreliable, she now knows to only tell her niece and nephew the morning of a potential visit because she doesn’t want to get their hopes up when their mother could potentially flake out.
However, their mother calls them every weekend and talks to them for about five minutes.
During their most recent phone call, their mother said that she was going to visit them on the 23rd.
Obviously, her niece and nephew were thrilled to hear this, and while she didn’t say anything at the time, she was furious their mother told them this, given her history of canceling plans.
This week, there was an annual pop-up Christmas gift shop at her niece and nephew’s school. The gift shop is a tool the school utilizes to teach the students about giving and buying gifts for people.
Every year, she gives them some money so that they can purchase gifts for her, their grandfather, friends, and their dogs.
“My niece asked if I could give her extra money to buy a gift for her mom. I took a moment before I spoke and said, ‘Let’s wait on that. I then told her that I wanted to be honest and said that I was a little annoyed with their mom for telling them that she was coming up because she had canceled in the past many times, so I didn’t want her to spend money on someone who she may not even see,” she shared.
She clarified that she has never spoken ill of their mother in front of them or to them. This is the only time she’s said something unfavorable about her, and now she feels a bit guilty for doing so.
After her explanation, her niece totally understood, but she couldn’t help feeling awful for not giving her the extra money for her to buy a gift for her mother.
Later, she received a text from her niece and nephew’s mother that she wouldn’t be able to visit on the 23rd after all.
What would you have done if you were in her shoes?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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