Dogs are a part of the family too, but to what extreme?
A woman on Reddit with the username farqueenhell was stuck between a rock and a hard place when her sister asked her to let her 24-year-old niece room with them upon accepting a new job.
from AmItheAsshole
She says "Princess," as she refers to her niece, came into the house and demanded to be given her dog's room and bed:
"We have a 4 bedroom house. Me and my husband, my son (16), my daughter (21) and our 4 year old rottweiler Freddie. I told sister that Princess would have to sleep on the sofa in the living room which she seemed OK with, but when she arrived both mother and daughter set about trying to convince me to clear out the dog's room and let her sleep in it. Princess even said it would be OK to make him sleep outside because 'it's just a dog'. It's getting a lot colder now and I'd never let Freddie sleep outside."
However insensitive this may have seemed at first, the woman's niece wasted no time in showing her just how much of a "Princess" she can really be.
"In all honesty I was right in thinking having Princess stay is more trouble than it's worth. She goes out clubbing and partying a lot and makes no effort to keep the noise down when she comes home in the early hours of the morning. Since she's arrived the living room smells of weed and that smell definitely wasn't there before she came."
"She's also rude to my kids. My daughter got engaged and we were all delighted, but Princess was lovely enough to say that if her BF had gotten her a ''cheap'' ring like that she wouldn't even get out of bed for the wedding. Daughter was in tears because of this and both husband and I had a word with Princess, who then cried and phoned up her mother saying we were rude to her."
The two sides of the conflicting parties just could not get along.
"Had another phone call with sister today, and she still tried to convince me to put her daughter in the dog's room. I made clear this wasn't happening and sister got upset with me saying how nasty it was to value pets over family. I also said that her daughter was skating thin ice and that I wouldn't tolerate her behaviour for much longer. Sister was very offended and said we should be happy to have her daughter there. Sorry but how can I be happy to have a spoiled overgrown child who keeps trying to steal a room from a dog in my home?"
Reddit was not divided, as you'd think they'd be—but rather most people agreed both people were in the wrong.
Note:
YTA= You're the a**hole
NTW= Not the a**hole
ESH= Everyone sucks here
"ESH. The kid is clearly a brat, but you're a pretty terrible host for leaving a dog a room and making your guest sleep on the sofa. No matter who they are, that's incredibly rude on your part, and she's right to be offended."
"ESH. Obviously your niece is being incredibly rude but I don't understand why you couldn't give her the dog's room for her stay. Why didn't the dog sleep in the living room? You can't use 'she's being a brat' as an excuse when you made the decision before she moved in."
"I thought hard about this and I think YTA. I feel as if you didn't want this princess in your home to begin with. So you took steps from the beginning to make her uncomfortable. You didn't give her a chance to prove she wouldn't be a brat. Granted you were correct. But would it have been different if she felt as if she belonged from the beginning. Were there even rules and chores set down?"
"My dog has his own room and when I have company I clear out my room and sleep in my dogs room so my guest is comfortable and my dog isn't put out. But that's just me."
"I would be so uncomfortable and weird sleeping on someone's couch for an extended period of time. Where's her privacy? What if she wants to nap in the middle of the day? What if she needs to masturbate? What if it gets hot and she needs to sleep in her underwear? What if she needs to study in silence? What if she wants to have friends over?"
"The weed issue is irrelevant since we don't know what state you're in and it can be legal in some places. But if I were living with you. I'd need to come home high so I can deal with the fact that my dog cousin is more respected than me."
Most people seem to agree that yes, her behavior is bad, but no, she doesn't deserve to be turned out of a bedroom by a pup.
"ESH. Yeah, that girl would be out the door for half the crap she's been pulling...but it is pretty weird to give a dog a room over a human guest."
"ESH because what do you do when you have guests? It is strange to give a dog a private room and make guests sleep in a public area of the house."
"Your niece obviously sucks and has the freedom to move out at any time."
"YTA I have had dogs most of my life and they are content sleeping on the couch. I can tell your niece is a brat, but I can also tell you probably are too. If I was under the impression that you only had a couch available and then showed up to find that there was a whole room being used for just a dog and would stay that way, I'd be upset and feel disrespected. I'm saying this as a fellow homeowner with kids. It also seems like you were very aware that your niece had a personality problem and chose to let her live with you anyways. If she offends you after that, you brought that on yourself."
Dogs are pretty good at sleeping wheresoever they choose, whereas humans generally need to enjoy a modicum of privacy.
"I mean, ESH here. This woman sounds like an awful guest and an awful person."
"That's entirely unrelated to the fact that you gave a dog their own bedroom but put a long-term guest out on the couch."
"Like, why couldn't the dog sleep in the living room?"
"But yeah. The fact that this woman sucks is totally unrelated to your house layout and guest policy, which is why I said ESH"
"ESH. Your niece is a brat but seriously, you don't have a guest bedroom but keep one for a dog? Do you never invite anyone?"
"YTA- i think this is all on you, and I'm gonna tell you why:"
"*Niece comes home, she finds put she will be sleeping on a couch, while a dog gets a whole room for itself. (Unrelated, but why would a dog need privacy? I've had dogs since I was born, I love them, would still kick them out of a room to accommodate a guest)."
"*When niece starts doing normal 24 year old things, like going out, or smoking weed, you complain about the smell and the noise, but what other choice does she have? It's not like she can avoid being noisy if she's in a common space of the house, and it's not like she can go lock herself up in a room to chill out and not get your living room smelling like weed."
"*Niece is clearly hurt by what I consider pretty rude behaviour from your family. If my mom tried to do what you're doing I would tear her a new one, she might be upset that her cousins are not standing up for her."
"You are being incredibly nasty, if you didn't want to host your niece you should have told her to look for a different arrangement."
"It's pretty damned weird to not give up the dog's room to family and instead let her sleep on the living room couch for... years? ESH - Just because she is obnoxious doesn't mean this a suitable living arrangement; one could almost say you took her in just to rub it into her face that your dog has priority over her in your life."
"Your sister is also pretty damned weird for letting you take care of her knowing this is happening."
Even Twitter got in on the action somewhat.
All in all, the consensus is that everybody is to blame. Both Princess for her less than satisfactory behavior and farqueenhell for clearly telling Princess from day one she's not welcome.
Hopefully, everybody can learn a little something from this situation.
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