Dating a stepsibling might sound pretty unusual, but for two teenage “step siblings,” the situation is complicated. When they started dating, they had no idea that their parents were also dating. And now, their parents are trying to get them to break up by making them uncomfortable and introducing them as “siblings.”
In a post on Reddit, a 17-year-old said he and his girlfriend, Noa, also 17, started dating 18 months ago. A few months into their relationship, they somehow found out that his dad and Noa’s mom were seeing each other, which sounds awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved.
According to him, their parents are trying to make it weird.
The teenager wrote in his post that their parents are pushing for them to break up because of the awkwardness of it all. From the parents’ perspective, their relationship is “serious” and their kids’ relationship is less so. But because the teens have said they don’t want to break up with each other, the parents have gone to great lengths to make it weird for them.
“They started calling us siblings and introducing us to others as stepsiblings,” the teenager explained. “They even talked about trying IVF to have a baby together.”
At first, the parents delayed moving in together because they didn’t want the two teens living in the same space. However, they later decided that the living arrangement might work out in their favor. “They decided the societal pressure to break up would increase if we ‘lived as siblings,'” the teen wrote. “It didn’t.”
The parents later got engaged.
And the teenagers haven’t broken up — because they don’t want to. The teen said he and his girlfriend “made them uncomfortable every time we kissed or held hands,” and now that their parents are getting married, they really want the teens to end their relationship.
The teenager described the parents as “more persistent” now that they plan to get married soon and don’t want him and his girlfriend to still be together on their wedding day.
But the teens don’t feel weird about their relationship.
In spite of their parents’ attempts to make it weird for them, the teens don’t feel that way at all. “She’s not my sister, she’s not my sibling and even if my dad marries her mom she won’t be my family like they think,” the teenager wrote in his post.
The situation escalated when the two teens pretended that they might elope soon. Noa’s mom called the relationship “sick and disgusting” and told the teenagers that her relationship “should take priority over” theirs.
Some people could understand the parents’ discomfort.
But at the same time, they clarified that the teenagers aren’t doing anything wrong. “I understand that the situation may be uncomfortable for the adults, but it is a problem for them to deal with, not you,” one Redditor wrote. “They were the ones who chose to continue their relationship, knowing full well how things were between you two.”
Most people didn’t see anything inherently wrong with the teenagers’ relationship, as they didn’t grow up together and don’t think of each other as siblings. But others think that the relationship might lead to possible problems in the future.
“So even if you did break up they are then expecting you to live together as step siblings? How do they think this is going to work out?” one person questioned. “This is all such a mess and they are making it harder than it needs to be. If they are that serious about each other they can wait until you two have gone to college and moved out for them to live together and get married.”
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
