Abby Connolly
Sometimes, when you end up in a blended family and have stepsiblings, it takes a long time for you to bond with them and feel like relatives. For some people, that bond never really forms, and they see their stepsiblings as acquaintances.
One woman’s stepsister, who she was never close with, wants to be her bridesmaid in her upcoming wedding, and her family is giving her grief for saying no.
She’s 27 and very close to her 26-year-old biological sister. Their parents divorced when she was 10, and her mom married a man who had a seven-year-old daughter named Leah.
Leah didn’t have any contact with her biological mom, so Leah was with their mom and stepdad full-time while she and her sister primarily stayed with their dad.
“When we were at Mom’s, neither my sister nor I were close to Leah,” she said.
“I found Leah really annoying, and she never grew on me. I know she was younger, and being an only child with no mom in her life, she might have wanted a bigger family, and she probably looked up to my sister and me. But, I found her very clingy and whiny, and my mom and Leah’s dad did not help.”
Instead of figuring things out themselves, whenever Leah felt the slightest bit excluded from her and her sister, she’d complain to her dad and their mom, who would force them to spend time with Leah when they didn’t want to.
Once she was 17, she spent more time with her dad and began to see Leah only twice a year. Since then, she’s remained civil with Leah whenever she sees her, but they are not close in any way and hardly know each other. Still, Leah considers her a close sister and expects her to treat her the same way.
Several months ago, she got engaged and immediately knew she wanted her biological sister to be her maid of honor and the only person in her bridal party. But pretty soon after her engagement, Leah started asking if she could be a bridesmaid and wouldn’t stop talking about it during a recent family meetup.
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