She Called Her Widowed Sister-In-Law An Unfit Mother For Neglecting Her Niece And Nephew After Her Brother Passed Away Eight Months Ago
When someone is grieving a terrible loss, you can never know for sure how they’ll react to it.
A woman recently upset her family after calling her widowed sister-in-law neglectful because of the way she’s been treating her kids after the loss of her husband.
She’s 24 and lost her brother, Mark, in a tragic car accident eight months ago.
Mark left behind his 29-year-old wife, Emily, and their two kids, Lily and Jake, who are six and three.
Mark’s accident was devastating and had a huge impact on her entire family.
“He was my big brother, protector, and best friend,” she said.
“I tried to be there for Emily and the kids as much as I could despite my own grief. I visited often, helped with the kids, and made sure they felt supported. However, over the past few months, I’ve noticed that Emily has been struggling more than usual.”
Over the last few months, she’s been noticing that Emily is very withdrawn and has stopped taking on most of her daily responsibilities, like cleaning her house, getting groceries, or playing with her kids.
While she understood that Emily might not be the same for a while after what happened, she noticed her grief started preventing her from being an attentive mother. The kids were hardly bathed and fed properly, and the house was often covered in rubbish and dirty clothes.
Daniel – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Things came to a head when, last week, she stopped by Emily’s house to look in on everyone and walked into a disaster.
“Jake was crying in his crib with a dirty diaper, and Lily was sitting on the couch with an empty expression, staring at the TV,” she recalled.
“Emily was nowhere to be found. After searching the house, I found her locked in the bathroom, scrolling through social media. I lost it [and] banged on the door and demanded she come out and take care of her kids.”
When Emily emerged, she looked at her like she was crazy, which made her angrier. She went off on Emily, telling her she needed to get her act together for their kids, as they couldn’t lose their mother in addition to their father.
Emily began crying, telling her she couldn’t understand what she was going through, and she said she did, but she still needed her to take care of the kids. Emily became more upset, accusing her of judging her and telling her she had no right to tell her how to live her life.
“We ended up in a screaming match, with me calling her neglectful and unfit and her telling me to leave and never come back,” she explained.
“I left in tears and haven’t spoken to her since. Now, some family members are saying I was too harsh and that Emily needs support, not criticism.”
Some other relatives agreed that Emily needed a wake-up call, but for the most part, she’s getting a lot of backlash for her outburst.
She didn’t enjoy yelling at her grieving sister-in-law, but she cares about her niece and nephew and doesn’t want them to suffer any further.
Was she too harsh with Emily?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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