Woman kicks out sister for yelling at her son; 'he doesn't have magic ocean powers.' AITA?

If your teen child and your sibling are in a fight, whose side will you choose?

That is the question posed in a popular post on the AITA subreddit, where a mom broke up a fight between her son and sister, and told her sister she's no longer welcome to visit.

She wrote:

AITA for telling my sister she isn’t welcome in my home after she fought with my son?

My son (17m) loves the water. Ever since he was little, he’s always wanted to be either at the beach or the pool. He loves to swim, surf, etc, and I mean it when I say it’s his favorite thing.

We live near a beach so sometimes he’ll just go sit at the beach for a while. It’s something he’s been doing since he was 12. My sister and her kids were visiting and it was going fine. But then I noticed my son was never home.

I asked him about it and he said that it’s just really overwhelming at the house because his cousins never leave him alone (they’re 8 and 9-year-old girls that adore him) so he just goes to the beach to avoid them.

I told him I understood and talked to my sister who said she’d talk to them. Well, yesterday I came home to my nieces sitting in the living room watching a movie. My son and sister were nowhere to be found.

Neither of them was answering the phone either. I’m not usually concerned but my son always sends me a text or answers my phone calls at least. I got the girls and went to the beach and found my son at his usual spot. But my sister was there too and she was yelling at him.

She said something along the lines of “you do realize that you aren’t in some film where the main character‘s like connected to the sea or has magic ocean powers right? Like...you realize that you aren’t like that Percy Jackson character and your dad isn’t some sea god?”

My son looked incredibly upset and he has an explosive temper so I knew he was about to say something crazy so I immediately jumped in and asked my sister what the hell her problem was.

She looked taken aback but said that she told my son to watch the girls while she went to get food but when she came back he wasn’t there and the girls were alone. My son insists that he said he was busy but my sister insists that he didn’t.

They went back and forth on this without letting me get a word in and I eventually just told my sister that this wasn’t working out and that if she was going to fight and argue with my son and mock him then she isn’t welcome in my home. She looked shocked and said that I need to stop coddling my son and stop feeding into his ridiculous delusions. I just told her to pack her sh*t.

She said that her daughters will remember this and that I shouldn’t be surprised when no one wants the weird side of the family (meaning my son and I) around anymore.

I feel bad because her daughters looked genuinely upset and I mean my son could by lying as well. And idk maybe his love for the water isn’t healthy but that’s never crossed my mind before. AITA?

Edit:

I suppose the mocking doesn’t make sense without context. My child’s father left us.

When my son was younger, my brother got him into the Percy Jackson books and my son got pretty attached to the character and would tell people that he was the character and would say that his dad was similar to Poseidon which is why he wasn’t around.

I haven’t read the books so I don’t know the details but it was for a very short while when he was a lot younger. He hasn’t even mentioned Percy Jackson in years. And to be fair to my sister, she texted me before leaving the girls and made sure I’d be there soon. I doubt she would’ve left if I wasn’t nearby.

Altruistic_Kale_3597 wrote:

I don't know how far into the argument they were. But it strikes me that if your son had agreed to watch the kids and then left, your sister wouldn't be saying he had a delusional relationship with the water; she would be saying, 'why did you leave my kids unattended when you agreed to watch them?'

Also, if she were genuinely concerned about her daughters' well-being, I'm not sure why SHE would have left them to go yell at your son. Anyway, NTA.

Ahviaa224 wrote:

She left her kids alone...to yell at him for leaving her kids alone. She’s a hypocrite. And an AH. I’m not sure how not letting someone yell at your child equals coddling.

And I’m not sure why a teenager going to the beach to clear his mind is such an issue with everyone here. How is that any different from an adult (or anyone) going for a run to clear their mind. Or yoga. Or reading. Does doing any of those things to clear your mind equal not dealing with life?

LouisV25 wrote:

NTA. Any issues she had with him should have discussed with you first. What she said was out of line. There is no way she should say cruel things to him even if he was wrong. I’m inclined to believe that he told her he was busy because too many people feel entitled to a babysitter. And your sister’s mouth screams entitlement.

17-year-olds don’t want to always have to entertain young kids. Even if he was wrong, she literally left her kids alone to tell him off about leaving her kids alone. Make that make sense. Kid or not, it’s hard to respect a person who says the things your sister said.

loudent2 wrote:

99.999% your sister is lying. I'm going to quote judge Judy here 'If it doesn't make sense, it's not true'. If this was about him agreeing to watch them and not doing it, it would make sense for her yelling about that, or contacting you to tell you what happened.

The fact that she was just digging into him because she doesn't like that you give him the freedom doesn't make sense If the concern was watching the kids, her leaving the kids unwatched to yell about it doesn't make sense. If it doesn't make sense, it's not true.

Emergency_Corvid wrote:

As someone who is neurodivergent, extremely sound sensitive, and can't handle the chaos of children, I can totally relate to your son needing space. Your sister was out of line and you were right to kick her out to protect your son from her abuse.

Given the things she was saying, I can just about guarantee she's the one lying because she thinks what he's doing is weird and a waste of time-- as opposed to spending time with her kids.

What 17-year-old boy wants to spend a ton of time with 8- and 9-year-old girls? NTA. You did right by your son.

Clearly, OP did the right thing as a loving mom. Hopefully, her sister owns up to how inappropriate her behavior was.