One very distressed daughter’s story about how her family faked an emergency has been causing quite a few ripples across the internet. And, you should be warned, this story is one hell of an emotional rollercoaster…for all of the wrong reasons.
One woman recently took to Reddit’s Am I The Asshole thread to recount her bizarre tale and try to make sense of her experience.
Reddit’s Am I The Asshole (AITA) subreddit can be a great place for people to go when they don’t feel like they can work out who was in the wrong in a situation. It’s less aimed at trivial issues such as who ate the last Jaffa Cake and more aimed at family or relationship drama ⏤ although, I would absolutely subscribe to a page dedicated to chewing out people who ate the last Jaffa Cake.
Anyway, Jaffa Cakes aside, this one woman’s story all started with a somewhat, unfortunately, missed phone call or two…which, let’s face it, is something we all do from time to time.
The woman explained that everything began when she was playing some games with her friends.
She explained that she (19) and her sister (21) have moved out of their parent’s house, but don’t live on their own. Then, she went on to state:
“To start […] I was playing games with our friends [last week] not realizing my sister was trying to call me for a while and [my] family [were] trying to contact my phone for about an hour before my sister gave me a heads up to let family know I am [okay].
“I was stunned how I missed this many notifications because my phone is loud and after resolving things with the family and a talking to I saw that my phone was put on do not disturb. I had forgotten to turn it off after a nap. [Still,] I acknowledged I messed up and worried everyone and [I am] now hyper-aware of my notifications.”
However, what followed was when things got really strange…
You may already be thinking that the family overreacted because she didn’t answer her phone for an hour or so ⏤ God knows I do! Although, I never answer my phone as that sets a precedence of people expecting you to answer it, however, this is extreme by any standards surely?
But, things got much more bizarre.
“Tonight again [I’m] playing games with my friends and I get a call from my father asking me if I had talked to my sister lately,” she continued.
“We [don’t] talk so I was like ‘other than the group chat no.’ [He] then asked if I can call her. I rang her twice with no answers soon messaging my dad what is going on. He tells me that he got a message from her saying ‘help’ and now [isn’t] contacting anyone.”
The woman in the story naturally freaked out!
I think that freaking out a little is a perfectly natural response to this information ⏤ unless you’re a stone-cold psychopath who is still bitter about your sibling breaking your Furby when you were a kid…but I digress.
Our protagonist quickly began calling everyone that knew their sister, writing, “I started messaging several of her close friends if they had contacted her lately. After about 30 minutes of this, my dad calls again and we talked about what we are going to do as she [isn’t] at work nor at the apartment. Then a pause as I was about to suggest calling [the] police.”
However, when they suggested this, their dad announced a somewhat head-scratching revelation.
Their father told them that this had all been a joke to teach them a lesson… Yeah, weird right?
“My father then said ‘She is standing right next to me’ Uh what? ‘Yeah [she’s] standing right here, [doesn’t] feel good to be left in the dark right?'” she continued.
Now, I’m all for having a bit of fun with family members from time to time, but I like to draw the line at reducing a beloved relative to tears and panic attacks with tortuous psychological warfare, but hey, I’m just old-fashioned like that! They then went on to write:
“I was rather pissed and emotional so I basically sobbed on the phone thankful she was safe but so utterly mad. I managed to ask why and their reason was ‘to teach me a lesson from my f*ck up’ and ‘to mess with me’. This felt so malicious and hurt me so I said ‘I know I screwed up but mine was on accident yours was just being an ass.'”
And, it can’t only be me that is floored that the sister was in on this right?
Their father then delightfully called their daughter an asshole, said she was “too sensitive,” and said that she “deserved” it.
This person tragically ended their story with, “So AITA? I felt like the two situations are really different. I accepted I messed up the first situation, but this one I felt [had] intent to hurt/scare me? I just feel like I am just overreacting and at a loss.”
It is sad that someone who had been put in a position such as this could feel as though they are in any way the aforementioned “asshole” in this scenario. And, the public’s opinions came in hard and fast like a runaway freight train careering through a giant waxwork of Simon Cowell’s face.
The majority of the opinions were less than positive towards the family’s reaction.
People were rightly baffled that a family would freak out if their daughter doesn’t answer their phone for a few hours, in which case God knows how they would have coped before mobile phones. One of the top responses, from user Alert-Potato, began:
“You’re a grown-ass adult who is allowed to have a life and ignore your phone whenever you want, and for whatever reason you want. The fact that they did this because for one afternoon you were not immediately available to them without notice is pretty f**king toxic.”
The fact that she is an adult was echoed by a lot of people due to the fact that…well, she is a damn adult!
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Most people were shocked by the family’s manipulative behavior.
The top comment on the thread read, “For the record you did not mess up the first time. [You’ve] moved out, if you don’t want to talk to them you don’t have to, now on to the story you described this sounds like manipulation. [Your] dad doesn’t like you out of his reach so he tried to scare you into it that’s not healthy,” which inspired a response from the woman in the story.
She explained that her family wasn’t a fan of her moving in with her boyfriend at all, and even put in place stringent rules about calling them every day at specific times, which others pointed out as red flags of manipulative behavior.
Obviously, parents can have a hard time when their children move out of the house, and it is natural that they may initially worry. However, the psychological nonsense in faking the fact that your sister has gone missing is just Iago-levels of hideous machinations.
A lot of people suggested lessening contact with them to make them less controlling over time.
From cutting off contact altogether for a brief period to gradually lessening contact over time, people had a wide array of thoughts on how to deal with this. There were also people simply stating that an uncomfortable conversation with their father expressing just how much he hurt her is the only way forward. However, whatever the route they take, it’s going to be a difficult journey.
Noticing the red flags in a relationship can be a worrying thing, as the person who posted this went on to hint towards, however, it can help you forge healthier relationships with family members if handled well enough ⏤ and if they are willing to open their ears and actually listen to you!
Do you think that she was overreacting, or was her anger justified?
I cannot believe that this poor woman’s family have never heard of the story of the boy who cried wolf. Or, maybe they just completely misread the meaning, it is a very complicated story I guess? The woman who posted it did actually go on to say, “I [don’t] know if an actual emergency does happen that I can trust them after this. I mean even on [the] call he sounded so serious and stressed.”
Well, let me know what you made of this rollercoaster of emotion and deception in the comments below! Also, I would like to add on a serious note that if you genuinely feel like you need help when dealing with something that has happened in your family, then there are helplines across the internet that can provide anonymous help and advice.
