Woman who works with aunt says, 'I'm not uneducated like you, I have options.'
'AITA for calling my aunt uneducated?'
I (26f) have an aunt (50’s) who puts very little importance on education. She barely graduated high school and instilled these views in her son as well. My parents had raised me to view education as the best tool you can have in life and I wholeheartedly agree.
I graduated high school with honours and I am now in university for biochemistry. Currently I am living with my mom and working to save money for tuition. I am working at the local seafood processing plant where my aunt also works.
This job is nearly killing me. I work from 6pm to 5am and it is hard physical labour. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not built for hard labour and I also have some health issues that make it even harder. But the money is good so I stick with it.
The other night during our break I had a lot of back pain so I took a muscle relaxer. It was hard to move my left arm and my aunt didn’t like that. She is normally very cranky and bossy so I wasn’t surprised when she went on a rant about how I will have to suck it up because this will be my life from now on. Slaving in a factory because office jobs hardly exist.
Normally I’d just ignore her but I was so on edge that I snapped and said something along the lines of “I will never have to get used to hard labour because I’m not as uneducated as you so I have better options.”
This job doesn’t require any sort of schooling and you don’t even have to pass in a resume to apply. My comment shut her up for the night but the next day my she called my mom about it and my mom said I need to hold my tongue better because my aunt is just like that. But I don’t think my aunt should just get a free pass at being a bit** you know what.
My aunt has always been and always will be bossy and mean. It’s not just towards me but everyone. She will say some really nasty shit to anyone unprovoked for god knows why.
I don’t equate uneducated with stupid. I also don’t think trade work is beneath a degree. Both are an education, both require skills.
I have specifically tailored my studies to accommodate my health problems the best I can. I have disability aid on campus and make sure I have documents on file at any job. This current job has been fairly ok with me needed an extra break once in a while but the work is still painful to complete.
I have nerve damage, dystonia, and a slipped disk in my back that was “fixed” but still causes pain out of nowhere.
Here were the top rated comments from readers:
ESH. Your aunt was rude as hell and to prove how much better you are than her, you stooped down to her level. Your fancy education won’t mean shit if that’s how you look at people.
Not a bit. There's a breaking point, and assholes NEED to be put in their place, as rudely and dismissively and PUBLICLY as possible.
“Na nana na boo boo I’m smarter than you” is not putting someone in their place.
That's not what was said. I read it as 'my options aren't as limited as yours', which is different and yes, would put someone in their place.
ESH. 'I'm not built for hard labour' kind of made me laugh. Not sure what her son has to do with this, but like you admit, the job pays well, so it's working out for your aunt who has a high school education. And apparently you can do it even if you are partway through university.
Your aunt is wrong that doing one job means you'll do it forever, but you're wrong that having (part of) a university education means you'll never have to work at a job that you consider to be beneath you. And you're really both too old to fight like this at work.
The Op returned after listening to the comments from readers:
I had gone to my manager to talk about what happened, largely because I assumed he would have known after 4 days but he hadn’t to my surprise.
I told him exactly what happened and that I specifically picked a position away from my aunt the first day because we don’t really get along. That was something they had wondered but I didn’t explain why at the time to avoid concern about hiring me.
He said he technically has to file a report on the incident and talk to my aunt but considering I was so forthcoming about it I am likely not at risk of losing my job. Am I going to apologize to my aunt? F*ck no. Not unless manager asks me to.
She hasn’t spoken to me since the incident and avoids sitting with me at lunch. I haven’t been met with passive aggression in 4 days and it has been wonderful. Anyway, that’s it. I acted poorly and I take responsibility for that, at least on Reddit. Thanks for everyone’s input. :)