Woman Stops Hosting Family After Cousin Rummages Through Her Personal Things: ‘It Was Very Disrespectful’

Reddit is a popular place for users to post stories and ask for opinions on them. One such subreddit, r/AmIOverreacting, does just that for users who are wondering if they are making a big deal over something or not. A post created by u/ExpertSupermarket911 brings some family drama to the subreddit. Currently, the post has 1,500 upvotes and 390 comments.

u/ExpertSupermarket911 asks Reddit users if she is overreacting for not hosting her family because of something her cousin did. The user, who identifies as female, begins the post by saying that she is the one in the family who always volunteers a place to stay and organizes family get-togethers.

She opened her home when her parents were having work done at their house. Prior to their arrival, she moved a few important boxes to her own room, with the express direction that they were not to go in there. However, she noticed that one box had been opened.

“The weekend itself went smoothly, but after everyone left I realized one of the boxes I left in my bedroom had been opened. I didn't think anything of it at first because I figured I'd forgotten to shut it,” she says in the post. “Then out of nowhere, my cousin said something sarcastic about whatever was inside the box.”

She asked how her cousin knew, and her cousin confessed to going into her room and looking through her boxes.

“They confessed that all of us being in the living room, they entered my room and started rummaging through my things, my aunt and another cousin of mine were also there and it was hilarious for them because they found old letters and notes I had written to myself,” she says.

Unsurprisingly, she was upset. She went to her mom and told her she was no longer comfortable hosting get-togethers in her home. Her mom’s response was to tell her that she was being mean and that she should “learn to laugh at [herself].”

“I realised I probably shouldn't have left the box lying around and I probably ought to have put it somewhere safer but I don't think that gives anybody the right to rifle through my stuff. Now they are saying I am punishing everyone over something ‘wasn't that serious,’” she says.

Reddit Users Sided With the Original Poster

Many Reddit users agreed with the original poster that her boundaries had been crossed. She had explicitly told her family not to go into her room, and according to her account, her cousin entered the room anyway and went through her belongings.

Her cousin’s response was also singled out by users as especially upsetting. The cousin reportedly went through her personal belongings and then made jokes about what they found.

Other commenters also took issue with her mother’s response, particularly after the original poster said she was being called “mean” for no longer wanting to host family gatherings.

For the original poster, the issue was not simply that someone opened a box. She had set a clear boundary before her family arrived, and according to her account, that boundary was ignored. She was then upset that her personal belongings became a source of entertainment for other family members.

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made in the post, which are based solely on u/ExpertSupermarket911’s account of the events shared on r/AmIOverreacting.