Source: Reddit
My (22F) sister (28F) recently had to move in with me because she’s getting a divorce and has nowhere to stay. She has a daughter (7F). I live in a two bedroom apartment so it’s cramped and tensions are high.
My niece is terrible to be honest. She screams all day long at the top of her lungs. I work from home so I have tried to get my sister to get her to stop, but she’s so depressed from her divorce that she struggles to get out of bed. I have asked my niece to quiet down myself but she just smirks at me and continues playing and screeching. I have gotten reprimanded at work for it.
She also recently broke my laptop. I made it clear to both of them that my niece is not allowed to use my electronics minus the living room TV. Lo and behold, niece got her hands on my laptop to play games on it, spilled milk all over it, and ruined it. I was furious but my sister paid to replace it so I let it go.
I have tried many times to talk to my sister about this being unacceptable but keep getting blown off and told to let her grieve in peace. I do feel bad for her so I was doing my best to just put up with it.
Today I came home from errands to find my niece playing on my Nintendo Switch. Mind you this was kept in my room so she must have gone in there and looked for it. Annoyed, I held my hand out and told her to give it. She ignored me. I called for my sister to take care of her daughter but she was asleep and told me to leave her alone. So I just grabbed the Switch right from my niece’s hands and took it back to my room. She started screaming and crying and literally rolling on the floor but I ignored her.
Well she decided that was just not acceptable so she took a Sharpie and drew all over the living room wall. When I saw it, I freaked tf out! I told her she’s a spoiled fu&%#ng brat. She started screaming and crying even worse which finally woke my sister up. She came out and instead of being angry and scolding her daughter for her behavior, she scolded ME for yelling at her and calling her a spoiled brat.
Not my proudest moment, but I yelled at my sister that I was being kind by letting them stay with me rent free and I was being treated like absolute sh&t in return. She wasn’t parenting her child, and I wasn’t going to parent her child for her, so she needed to get her sh*t together and her daughter under control or they could find somewhere else to stay. Her daughter was not only getting me in trouble at my job, but had no respect for my personal belongings, and now I was probably going to lose my security deposit because she doesn’t accept the word “no.”
My sister started crying, called me an AH, and she and my niece haven’t come out of their room. I feel bad now. Did I overreact? Please don’t be afraid to criticize. Thank you for your time in advance.
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