Woman tells her sister that her baby names are "the worst she's ever heard." AITA?
When this woman feels like her sister needs to know how dumb her baby names are, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for not keeping my thoughts on my sister’s ridiculous baby names to myself?'
I’m the youngest of three siblings. There’s me (34M), my sister Katie (35F), and my brother Ian (38M). Out of the three of us, Katie is the one who 'made it' (her words). She attended Yale law school and is engaged to a neurosurgeon (Daniel) who attended Stanford medical school.
Over the years, it’s become clear that Katie looks down on me and Ian because we aren’t as ambitious/successful/credentialed as she is. Katie has expressed her astonishment that the family business is profitable even though someone who got C’s in high school and never went to college (aka me) has been running the day-to-day operations for 10+ years.
Katie also once told Ian to his face that he 'wasted his potential' (context: Ian was the valedictorian of his high school class, just like Katie) by dropping out of college to help Mom run the family business after Dad passed away.
Katie and Daniel recently posted that Katie is pregnant with twin boys, and their names would be Stanford and Yale. I commented “Congratulations!” but later I texted her to say that it wasn’t right to give the boys ridiculous names that would put them under immense pressure to succeed from a very young age.
I also asked her about what would happen if one or both of them weren’t as successful/perfect as she hoped.
Kate didn’t like the points that I made. She texted back “I wasn’t asking for opinions, especially from someone like you. Consider yourself uninvited from our wedding until you sincerely apologize.”
TBH, I was already leaning towards not attending due to Katie's condescending attitude towards me, but the 'someone like you' comment sealed the deal. I told Ian what happened, but he said that I should've kept my thoughts to myself.
Let's see what internet users had to say.
jc715 writes:
Yeah, definitely NTA. My mom wanted to name me after a popular Disney princess and we even have the last name to match. I would have looked like an ass trying to use an ID or credit card with that name. Or Winifred because ya know, the Wonder Years was popular.
I ended up with a relatively common name and thank god for that. Though the Disney princess would have been funny/ironic considering I forced her to give me a bowl cut (I hated my long hair) and wouldn’t leave the house for a year unless I could wear my Ghostbusters coveralls. Eventually they got fed up and forced me to burn them.
educationallo writes:
Personally I say NTA because people who give their kids made up or names that may cause bullying deserve at least one chance to be talked out of it (I tried once with a friend...
it didn’t work and they told me years later they wished they had listened because in the hospital where they work everyone makes fun of the odd named patients and they knew their daughter would be made fun of like this too). You did everything you reasonably could. It’s time to take a step back and let the parents make their first mistake. It’s okay. We all make mistakes.
igalol writes:
NTA. I don’t care if/where/when my kids go to college. I have a PhD and several other degrees, partner is in very advanced scientific field. You were brave to speak up for your nephews. Children deserve to be individuals and not be pressured to outperform or follow their parents’ endeavors.
The only reason I would give for trying to rekindle the relationship is to be a positive influence on your nephews, but that may be asking a lot of you, and they may not be receptive under their parents’ influence.