"AITA for humiliating my cousin in front of the entire family?"

I (30M) recently earned my PhD from a very prestigious university outside my country. Due to a learning disability, it has been incredibly challenging to say the least. There were countless nights where I'd be left in tears because I couldn't wrap my head around a chapter or was completely stuck on an assignment feeling beyond hopeless. But I persevered and it is such a relief to have achieved this.

I returned home where my dad proceeded to throw a dinner celebration at home inviting the entire family to celebrate. He is incredibly proud of my achievement and wanted to celebrate it with the whole family. I was looking forward to meeting everyone but my cousin let's call her Jane (fake name).

Jane is 36, unemployed and lives at home with her parents. She always has to be the center of attention constantly giving her advice and input on things when nobody wants or asks. My mom and her parents always defend her behavior which has only made it worse over the years. They claim she is incredibly talented and she needs room to achieve her potential.

My dad and I have tried countless times to reason with my mom not to get involved with her, but she is way too stubborn. In our culture we are expected to play nice with family no matter how awful they are so pretty much nobody calls out her behavior. So yeah while she hasn't ruined family events per se, she definitely leaves a sour note and we can't uninvite her or else the drama will be unbearable.

This 'grin-it-and-bear-it' mentality has always sucked in my home country and I think it's a big reason why my dad encouraged me to settle abroad. The day of the dinner arrived and Jane was insufferable as always.

She would not stop interrupting conversations and would totally dominate it with her tall tales about how she was getting job offers from Google or going to travel around Europe to pursue her passion in music and art. It was especially annoying since she'd keep interrupting me when I was trying to explain my research to my family members who were genuinely curious and she clearly couldn't stand it.

Then Jane decided she finally had to give me advice on what to do with my life now. My mom and aunt basically cornered me not letting me get away saying it was important and she was being a 'good older sister' by guiding me. My dad thankfully stayed right next to me in case things escalated. She started going on and on about what she did after graduating high school to make herself a 'success.'

My mom and her parents were nodding along while my dad and the rest of my family looked done with her. I kind off zoned out not wanting to engage but she noticed and got annoyed. She snapped her fingers in front of my eyes and looked at me annoyed, 'I'm giving you such good advice, you should pay attention so you can do well like me'.

Rather then the usual apology or excuse that I'd used for years, I proceeded to reply, 'Is it good advice to end up an unemployed loser who lives with her parents at 36 like you? Then no thanks.' Everyone was stunned silent for a second before she proceeded to burst into tears and run out. My aunt and uncle glared at me before racing after her.

The dinner pretty much ended after that as everyone made excuses to go off. My mom exploded at me telling me to apologize but my dad defended me saying Jane could stand to learn from me instead of lecturing me like I was a kid. The argument spiraled out of control and things have been pretty tense since.

My aunt and uncle sent some nasty texts but I ignored her while my mom kept going on about how heartbroken Jane was. My other family members reached out as well some saying they got where I was coming from but shouldn't have said it so publicly while others said I'd become arrogant and I should apologize. I'm feeling pretty conflicted about it now. So AITA?

TLDR: Condescending cousin tried giving me career advice so I humiliated her in front of the entire family. My mom and dad have been fighting ever since and everyone thinks I shouldn't have done it

Update: Thank you all so much for the comments. Have been going through them and I want to clarify a few things. First as many of you pointed out - yes, my culture is very hypocritical and toxic but people are too set in their ways to change. They'd rather tolerate Jane's BS then call her out for it since it would start drama with her parents and my mom.

Second my mom's always been weirdly protective of Jane which has been a source of tension between her and my dad. My dad thinks my aunt emotionally manipulated her into defending Jane and it's too ingrained into her. We honestly don't know for sure, we just assumed until that point.

Now on to the update. Jane has been blowing up on social media calling me arrogant and saying I have no concept of respect - the irony is not lost on me. Fortunately she faced backlash for needlessly airing family drama on the internet and has since taken down her posts. However the texts from her parents have continued. They're rather entertaining to read.

After mulling over things I confronted my mom last night. She gets very obsessive about cleaning when she's upset so I waited until she was done and I knew she'd be too tired to keep up her incessant demands. She wasn't really in the mood to talk but I didn't give her much of a chance to run away.

I told her very bluntly how I felt about Jane's behavior and then I told her that I considered the fact that she was taking Jane's side a betrayal and that I thought I could always count on at least my mother to always have my back. I admit it's probably a little manipulative.

She tried to turn it around on me saying that I was being disrespectful and it was her job to tell me when I was doing something wrong, except she wasn't expecting me to respond by asking if she cared so much about Jane then why she never bothered doing the same for her. She had no response and she proceeded to just walk away and ignore me for the rest of the night.

Today morning she came into my room early in the morning and she apologized to me saying she should have realized how I was feeling. I know people will say I should have rejected it and put all sorts of conditions, but at the end of the day she still is my mom.

She might have a terrible weak spot when it comes to Jane but she's always been a great mother to me and I cannot hate her if I tried. I forgave her instantly which made her cry and she hugged me saying how proud of me she was and she was sorry for not showing it. I think my dad must have said something last night that got to her.

I decided to push and ask her why she was so defensive of Jane when she had nothing going for her and she was constantly making up lies. She tried to defend her again but I told her that I was tired of doing this same old routine and if she could please treat me like an adult.

After some pushing she finally admitted that she knew Jane had absolutely nothing going for her and it was grossly inappropriate for her to try and give me career advice like that. But her perspective is that Jane is someone to be pitied and we should be compassionate by tolerating her BS so she doesn't feel bad.

I pointed out that they'd just enabled her behavior and made it worse, but conveniently now she said it wasn't her place to correct Jane. I was getting kind off sick of this cycle that was doomed to repeat so I told her I wasn't apologizing to Jane now or ever and the next time she tried to condescend me I wouldn't bother holding back.

I think she was a bit emotionally drained so she accepted so I can just hope she got the message and won't push the subject of Jane anymore. So I've been laying in bed thinking about all of this. I think pretty much everyone in the family is sick of her behavior so I think I'm going to talk to my dad about asking the rest of the family to exclude Jane and her parents from future events.

I'm not really sure how to approach this and I doubt everyone will be on board but I guess if we at least get the ball rolling then people might consider in the future. Kind of sucks that all I can do is hope stuff works out instead of knowing for sure

A week later, he posted this update:

Thank you all so much for the comments. Have been going through them and I want to clarify a few things. First as many of you pointed out - yes, my culture is very hypocritical and toxic but people are too set in their ways to change. They'd rather tolerate Jane's BS then call her out for it since it would start drama with her parents and my mom.

Second my mom's always been weirdly protective of Jane which has been a source of tension between her and my dad. My dad thinks my aunt emotionally manipulated her into defending Jane and it's too ingrained into her. We honestly don't know for sure, we just assumed until that point.

Now on to the update. Jane has been blowing up on social media calling me arrogant and saying I have no concept of respect - the irony is not lost on me. Fortunately she faced backlash for needlessly airing family drama on the internet and has since taken down her posts. However the texts from her parents have continued. They're rather entertaining to read.

After mulling over things I confronted my mom last night. She gets very obsessive about cleaning when she's upset so I waited until she was done and I knew she'd be too tired to keep up her incessant demands. She wasn't really in the mood to talk but I didn't give her much of a chance to run away.

I told her very bluntly how I felt about Jane's behavior and then I told her that I considered the fact that she was taking Jane's side a betrayal and that I thought I could always count on at least my mother to always have my back. I admit it's probably a little manipulative.

She tried to turn it around on me saying that I was being disrespectful and it was her job to tell me when I was doing something wrong, except she wasn't expecting me to respond by asking if she cared so much about Jane then why she never bothered doing the same for her. She had no response and she proceeded to just walk away and ignore me for the rest of the night.

Today morning she came into my room early in the morning and she apologized to me saying she should have realized how I was feeling. I know people will say I should have rejected it and put all sorts of conditions, but at the end of the day she still is my mom.

She might have a terrible weak spot when it comes to Jane but she's always been a great mother to me and I cannot hate her if I tried. I forgave her instantly which made her cry and she hugged me saying how proud of me she was and she was sorry for not showing it. I think my dad must have said something last night that got to her.

I decided to push and ask her why she was so defensive of Jane when she had nothing going for her and she was constantly making up lies. She tried to defend her again but I told her that I was tired of doing this same old routine and if she could please treat me like an adult.

After some pushing she finally admitted that she knew Jane had absolutely nothing going for her and it was grossly inappropriate for her to try and give me career advice like that. But her perspective is that Jane is someone to be pitied and we should be compassionate by tolerating her BS so she doesn't feel bad.

I pointed out that they'd just enabled her behavior and made it worse, but conveniently now she said it wasn't her place to correct Jane. I was getting kind off sick of this cycle that was doomed to repeat so I told her I wasn't apologizing to Jane now or ever and the next time she tried to condescend me I wouldn't bother holding back.

I think she was a bit emotionally drained so she accepted so I can just hope she got the message and won't push the subject of Jane anymore. So I've been laying in bed thinking about all of this. I think pretty much everyone in the family is sick of her behavior so I think I'm going to talk to my dad about asking the rest of the family to exclude Jane and her parents from future events.

I'm not really sure how to approach this and I doubt everyone will be on board but I guess if we at least get the ball rolling then people might consider in the future. Kind of sucks that all I can do is hope stuff works out instead of knowing for sure

Then a few days later, he posted this final, wild update:

This is actually so insane I don't even know what to make of it. I feel like I'm living in a bad sitcom right now. To summarize in my previous post I called out my entitled cousin for trying to give me career advise resulting in her having a meltdown and my parents fighting it out.

Things have been kind off frosty since then but my mom seems to have gotten the message which is a relief. She and my dad are talking again which is a relief because the tension was killing me. All I wanted was one peaceful month at home before I started my new job but I might not get it with what transpired.

Last night, my mom gets a phone call from my aunt. She is hysterical, crying how they've lost everything. She spends close to thirty minutes hearing her out but eventually its too much for her and she just ends the call. She went into the living room and just sat there practically catatonic. After about ten minutes she began to tell us what was wrong and I can't wrap my head around it.

Jane decided that the best way for her to get back at me was to get a PhD for herself. No doubt she thinks she'll breeze by it and be handed to her on a silver platter. Her parents being the enablers they are, were instantly on board. The details are a little vague here but from what we could put together, somebody approached them promising they could get Jane into a PhD program at Harvard.

No doubt there were red flags all over but they dived right into it and the man asked for a hefty sum which was most of their life savings. I can imagine Jane being all smug that she'd be the 'best PhD' in the family. Her competing with me is a mixture of annoying and sad because she has no concept of self-awareness.

I don't know who is worse here - Jane or her parents but very foolishly they accepted it before the obvious scammer blocked them everywhere and ran off with their money. It just baffles me how easily they fell for it, didn't they think even for a moment that it could be too good to be true?

And these sort of scams are incredibly common in my home country so they have no excuse for not knowing better since it is common sense but I guess expecting even that much from that narcissist is too much.

I have no doubt they'll be begging the family for money now and I have a feeling my mom will bring up the issue. I'm anticipating more drama which I'll inevitably be dragged into. I'm just so exhausted with all this right now. I think I'm just going to ask my parents to visit me where I work from now on.

The nostalgia visiting home is great but it really doesn't seem worth the effort dealing with everyone. If any family member I like is wanting to visit I will gladly fund their travel and stay, but I can't deal with all the nosiness and judgement anymore. It's getting on my last nerve. Anyways I'm going to go sleep this off because my head is throbbing thinking of their idiocy.

Edit: For those of you worried about my parents finances, there's no concern because my dad is in control of it. My mom has her own debit card for small expenses but any major spending she needs his permission. Might be a little backward idk, but it's avoided a lot of problems because my mom is not very good with money and tends to funnel any she gets to her sister's family.