In this story, a young woman is faced with the prospect of becoming the guardian of her disabled sister should something happen to their parents. However, she believes her two older brothers would be better suited for the role, and suggests different solutions to the problem, which causes a rift in the family.
Source: Reddit
I (F23) have been told my entire life that if anything happens to my parents I will be my sister’s guardian. She is 33 and has some disabilities. She is currently living in a group home. The government pays for a good portion of the cost but not all. My parents have made sure that they have accessed every resource available for her to make sure she has as good a life as she can.
We were visiting her this last weekend when they brought it up again. They are both reasonably healthy but they both had health scares in the last couple of years. They once again said that I would be her guardian.
I have been giving this a fair bit of thought. I have two older brothers. They are both married and established in their careers. They would be better choices than I am.
I want to go see the world. I am lucky enough that my job can be done from anywhere that I can access the internet.
When we went to have a short dinner I brought it up and said that I had three ideas.
- They make all three of us her guardians so we could split the responsibilities and duties.
- They leave their entire estate to my sister in a trust that will oversee her care.
- They leave me their entire estate with the proviso that I become her sole guardian and take full responsibility. Minus sentimental stuff for the rest of my family obviously.
I thought that was fair since it’s not like they are rich and their estate will mostly consist of their house and the insurance policies they took out when they realized the long term costs of care for my sister.
They said that I’m trying to shirk my responsibility to my sister and that I’m greedy for trying to get everything.
I had one last suggestion and they really hated it. I said that they were welcome to cut me completely out of their will. But that had to include guardianship of my sister. They could leave everything to her and my brothers but that meant I would be completely free of responsibility for her care.
My dad got really angry and my mom was crying when I left.
My brothers both called me to say I was being an a**hole springing this on my parents. And that I was being greedy trying to keep them and their families from getting anything when our parents pass away. I asked both of them if they wanted 100% responsibility for our sister in return for the entire estate. I volunteered to sign away everything to them. Neither one took me up on the offer.
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
