Have you ever noticed how families talk about unconditional love until the conditions actually show up? Then suddenly everyone's frantically googling "how fucked up is too fucked up to keep?" while their Facebook profile still proudly displays "Family Is Everything." Here we have a 14-year-old who committed the cardinal sin of modern existence – honesty – and discovered that even in the so-called sanctuary of family, truth is about as welcome as a hemorrhoid at an orgy. A teenager who dreamed of siblinghood until that sibling came with bonus genetic material, and parents who asked for her opinion only to collapse into emotional puddles when she actually gave it. Isn't that just the perfect fucking metaphor for our entire meaningless existence?
(14F) I've always wanted a sibling. But my parents had issues having a second child; my mom had 2 miscarriages. The first time, I was too young to understand what was really happening, but the second time I was 9 years old and I saw how much my parents suffered. I felt horrible for losing my sister.
My mom is now pregnant again, but unfortunately they have been told there was a risk of the baby having Down syndrome. About a week ago, my parents told me it was confirmed through a diagnostic test that my sibling has Down syndrome. They told me they are considering terminating the pregnancy and I should be ready for this possibility. I felt horrible about losing a sibling again, but I have been searching non-stop since then about caring for a person with Down syndrome and learned how hard it actually is, how it comes with a lot of other health problems, and how there's a very high possibility of them never being independent.
I then started wishing they would decide to abort it, but today they sat me down again and told me they decided to give birth. I felt so disappointed. I didn't say anything but "okay." My parents could read through me and asked me if I was unhappy about their decision. I thought I had to tell them the truth because if I don't say it now it might be too late forever. So I told them about all the research I was doing and I wished she had decided to terminate. We had a long talk and at some point I said I know I always told them I would love to have a sibling but I don't think I will ever be able to bond with this one.
After hearing that, my mom started crying. My dad started comforting her and told me to give them a little space.
He then came up to my room and told me I hurt them, especially my mom, deeply with all the things I have said and I should have supported their decision. I asked him if that was actually their decision or my mom's decision because it feels like the latter. He told me his decision is whatever my mom's decision is because she is the one that is pregnant, and I should have supported her decision and I owe her a huge apology for not doing so.
I think I had every right to share how I actually feel especially after they asked me in the first place, but AITA?
AITA for being unsupportive of my mom's decision to have a baby with Down syndrome?
The Cosmic Joke: When Biology Bitchslaps Your Dreams
Let's dissect this delicious dumpster fire of human moral theater, shall we? This kid spent her childhood dreaming of a playmate, some companion to share the psychological burden of being raised by people who clearly view reproduction as some kind of existential slot machine. "Let's try again, honey! Maybe THIS time we'll hit the jackpot!" Two miscarriages later, and our protagonist has already been introduced to life's first lesson: desire leads to suffering, and the universe gives approximately zero shits about your cute little family planning vision board.
And then – oh, the cosmic punchline – pregnancy number four comes with a bonus chromosome. Down syndrome. The parents, faced with this biological plot twist, perform the most predictable human ritual possible: they pretend to have a family discussion while already knowing exactly what they want to do. "We might terminate," they say, in the same tone they might use to discuss canceling Hulu. But this 14-year-old, this magnificent little nihilist in training, does what any good consumer does – she researches the product she's being sold.
What she discovers is the reality that society works overtime to paper over with inspiration porn and Hallmark movies. Down syndrome isn't just "special" – it's fucking hard. It's lifelong dependency. It's heart defects and cognitive challenges and a universe of caretaking that stretches into infinity like a highway to hell paved with good intentions. It's the collapse of the idealized sibling relationship she'd been mentally masturbating to since childhood.
So when her parents circle back – having mysteriously decided to keep the baby (or should we say, when her mother decided and her father followed like a testicle-free shadow) – our young protagonist commits the ultimate familial crime: she tells the fucking truth. "I don't think I'll ever be able to bond with this one," she says, speaking a truth so raw it could exfoliate your soul. And what happens? The mother cries, the father scolds, and the wheel of moral hypocrisy spins another revolution, crushing authenticity beneath it like a bug under a monster truck tire.
Let's be abundantly fucking clear here – they ASKED for her opinion. They dangled the illusion of agency in front of her like a cat toy, and then were shocked – SHOCKED – when she batted at it. "How dare you have independent thoughts about a situation that will fundamentally alter your existence for decades to come! Don't you know you're supposed to smile and nod like your father, that exemplary model of spineless acquiescence who follows your mother's reproductive decisions like a remora attached to a shark?"
Here's the real kicker, the cosmic joke that would make even the most hardened nihilist slow-clap in appreciation: this entire scenario is being played out against the backdrop of a society that simultaneously celebrates "reproductive choice" while demanding performative joy about every possible reproductive outcome. The parents want the moral credit for "choosing life" while also wanting their daughter to erase her own authentic reaction to that choice. It's like ordering the super-sized moral superiority meal and then being shocked when it comes with a side of family dysfunction.
The Abyss Gazes Also: Finding Meaning in Meaninglessness
In the great cosmic theater, this teenager has committed the only truly moral act possible – seeing reality for what it is, without the comforting blanket of self-deception. While her parents construct elaborate justifications wrapped in the warm glow of sentimentality, she alone stands naked before the void, pointing at it, and saying, "Hey, is anyone else seeing this shit?"
The true monster in this story isn't the teenager who spoke her truth or the parents who recoiled from it. It's the collective delusion that any of us can escape the fundamental aloneness of consciousness. This family will go on, the child will be born, and they'll all construct new narratives to make sense of their choices. The daughter will either conform to the expected script of sisterly devotion or be cast as the villain in the family mythology. Either way, the absurdity remains – we're all just making this shit up as we go along, pretending our moral frameworks aren't as arbitrarily constructed as the genetic code that gives us 46 chromosomes instead of 47.
Perhaps the most disturbing truth is that in her callous teenage clarity, this 14-year-old has achieved what most adults spend their lives avoiding – she's seen through the bullshit. And for that crime, she must be punished with guilt, made to apologize for the sin of not participating in the collective self-deception. Because if we all acknowledged reality with such unfiltered perception, the whole fucking theater would collapse, and then where would we be? Just monkeys with anxiety, staring into the abyss, without even the comfort of our moral fairy tales.
The ultimate irony here is that in fifteen years, when her parents are aging and her Down syndrome sibling needs constant care, they'll expect her to step up and be the caretaker they've already emotionally groomed her to be. And if she refuses? She'll be the heartless monster who abandoned her "special" sibling, rather than the clear-eyed realist who saw the future being written and had the guts to say "this is bullshit" before the ink dried.
For The Chromosome-Typical Morons Who Still Don't Get It
Here's the deal, dipshits: 🧬 Teen wanted normal sibling, got Down syndrome sibling instead. 🔍 Did her homework, realized it's a lifelong shit-show of caregiving. 🗣️ Parents asked for her opinion, then got butthurt when she gave it honestly. 😭 Mom cried, Dad showed his ass-kissing skills. 🤷♀️ Everyone's pretending this is about the baby when it's really about maintaining the comfortable lie that life is fair and choices don't have consequences. 💩 The real asshole is existence itself, which keeps dealing cards from a stacked deck and expecting us to smile about our shitty hand. 🎭 Moral of the story: honesty is only the best policy when it confirms what people already want to hear.
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