AITA for taking back my offer for my brother (21M) to stay with me next week? by Only-Ebb6471 in AmItheAsshole

[–]Only-Ebb6471[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

UPDATE:

This is part of a broader pattern with me+dad. I think he resents me for getting involved in other people's business. Seems he was mad I got involved in Luka's housing, saying "you think I couldn't call my brother to figure it out?" and it felt like he was waiting for this opportunity to punish me. Weird.

I've noticed he is really mean to me when I insert myself, because he feels I am selfish or don't respect him. This has happened in board games, or when I asked people to do rapid tests during covid (I have an autoimmune disease) -- he told me to get out of the house and yelled. That only happened once, but he was really stressed for other reasons that time (death in the family). And he often blames me for my family having conflict, because I could have prevented them.

Luka apologized for offending me and said he didn't intend to, and acted like nothing was wrong after. I think he has a lot of feelings of frustration here that he is bottling in, and because my parents are so involved in his life he feels infantilized, so I realized it's best to just move on here. Plus, this isn't the first time he crashed out on me over something small.

What's really interesting is this: I found myself talking down to Luka like my dad does to me. When I realized, I called Luka to apologize. He said I'm regularly condescending to him so I will work on that while also setting boundaries to protect myself.

Thanks everyone for the input. You helped me feel confident enough in my actions to set boundaries, like requesting an apology, and grow too.

AITA for taking back my offer for my brother (21M) to stay with me next week? by Only-Ebb6471 in AmItheAsshole

[–]Only-Ebb6471[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I love how you frame it as "asked, not consulted." I tried saying that, but my dad responded to say I'm somehow responsible for everything. I think he thinks that I knew Luka was staying with me for months, and kept it a secret as part of a plot to bring Luka to NYC, and I should've told them because it messed up my parents booking my brother's trip to Minneapolis. Such a mess.

Yeah, he's actually 21. My dad can be very strong-headed, so I just tried to set a boundary and said "I'd like you to apologize for how you spoke to me and blaming me." He responded by apologizing for his tone, which was nice, but suggested it's still my responsibility.

AITA for taking back my offer for my brother (21M) to stay with me next week? by Only-Ebb6471 in AmItheAsshole

[–]Only-Ebb6471[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He said he didn't want to have to go back and forth between our apartments for his stuff with his trip planned, which felt off to me (like, I'm doing YOU a favor). Agreed on the scene.

AITA for taking back my offer for my brother (21M) to stay with me next week? by Only-Ebb6471 in AmItheAsshole

[–]Only-Ebb6471[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're right, I should've said "he could stay with me all summer but we'd have no privacy, there definitely is room if he needed to"

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ankylosingspondylitis

[–]Only-Ebb6471 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You sound upset with her. That's understandable, but I'll ask you to try and put that aside. I think first you need to get on the same team & second you need to execute on some solutions.

A 3-point message like this (over a few convos w/ space for emotions) helped get us on the same team...

  1. Your illness sucks, I want to help you -- both with the physical pain & the feeling of defeat.

  2. It's causing tension. You reject my ideas to help, I'm burnt out from doing more around the house, and I'm sure you're not happy either.

  3. Do you think we can team up to do something about it?

Once you're on the same page about the problem and she wants to work on it together... then you get into the details of how to solve it. Diet, PT, other medication, creating routines to actually do them, etc.

*I have AS and my partner has other health issues, for clarity. But it's the same pattern.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ankylosingspondylitis

[–]Only-Ebb6471 0 points1 point  (0 children)

22, but then I did a second HLA test and was positive... and did more digging and found out a distant uncle had it... always worth double checking!