re: Worst thing a family member you previously respected has done

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have a niece who is a career drug addict, thief, con artists, manipulator.

40 years old and probably hasn't worked two years in her life

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I had a cousin just like this. She started using drugs in high school and always ran with the bad kids. One year at Christmas we had everyone over to my parents house and a day or two after my mom noticed some of her jewelry was missing. My cousin had always envied my mom's collection, mom is a jewelry lover. It's not like she's got the Hope Diamond or anything, but what she does have is quality stuff.

Then at Easter we had a repeat of this. Everyone over, lots of people having a good time. People coming in and out. A day later my mom's diamond earrings are missing.

After that she had my dad go buy a safe for the good stuff.

The cousin continued to sink deeper in to drug addiction and made some terrible life choices for her and her poor kids. She ended up dying of hepatitis at the age of 45. Before that I had written her off and hadn't seen her in years. I did attend her funeral, but only for my Aunt and Uncle's sake.

Her brother is almost as bad. He started a small business and hired my brother as a "partner". My brother didn't have any money to invest in the business so the cousin was the boss. But my brother ran the crew, worked overtime for no pay, and did all of the hard work to make the business successful.

As they started to show profits my cousin starts buying new vehicles for himself, his wife, and even his in-laws. Meanwhile my brother is the last to be paid, never gets a raise, and is often sweating bills because my cousin was short on payroll. The cousin even had the audacity to take his wife's whole side of the family to Disney World for a week. And he never lifted a finger to help his parents financially or with things around the house.

He's a POS who is controlled by his shrew wife and her parents.

I've written him off as well.

I'm still close with my Aunt and Uncle, and I feel sorry for them. But realistically, they raised those kids. Spoiled them rotten, and it's not surprising how they turned out.

Father pulled a gun on me, finger on the trigger after spending nearly a week nursing him to sobriety. Haven't seen him since.

Overdosed on drugs after being warned

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Who’s the shittiest, most low down, dirty rotten scoundrel in your family that you once trusted?

My mom’s little brother was one of my idols as a kid. He used to babysit me in his dorm room, take me to college football games, taught me to play chess, and helped me out of a few sticky situations when I was in college.

But a couple years after my maw maw died, he revealed his true colors to me. We all thought he was the most successful of my mom and her six sibs, which he may be, but his actions have made me question everything I previously thought about him.

My grandparents left several hundred thousand dollars in a savings account and mutual funds. For some dumb reason, they didn’t leave a will. My Mawmaw trusted him, as the most successful, to execute her estate fairly and equally. Yet, he decided that his family needed all that money to themselves. And proceeded to pay off his home, buy some land, and new vehicles for his wife and kids on my grandparents life savings.

I grew up close to my grandparents and saw them at least once a month as a kid, and they lived till I was in my 30’s, so I knew them quite well. And I know nothing would have saddened them them more than to see what their son has done.

My mom is the type that never wants to rock the boat and always keep the peace, and wishes I would forgive him. He has told his sibs that he believes it was rightly his because he helped out my grandparents. I know he’s full of shite, and I have nothing but contempt for him.

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This might be the shittiest thing I've ever heard of someone doing.

If he is successful and had a job then stole from his brothers and sisters there is no helping him. He is lost.

I cant fathom stealing from anyone but stealing from your family and spitting your own mothers face while doing it is beyond repairable with me.

General theme of the thread, it's almost always about money. It really brings out the absolute worst in everybody.

My dad basically stole $8000 from a family member a few years ago because he felt "wronged" by him. My dad was completely the one in wrong and everyone told him such, there wasn't a single person on his side, he didn't care.

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Who’s the shittiest, most low down, dirty rotten scoundrel in your family that you once trusted?

My mom’s little brother was one of my idols as a kid. He used to babysit me in his dorm room, take me to college football games, taught me to play chess, and helped me out of a few sticky situations when I was in college.

But a couple years after my maw maw died, he revealed his true colors to me. We all thought he was the most successful of my mom and her six sibs, which he may be, but his actions have made me question everything I previously thought about him.

My grandparents left several hundred thousand dollars in a savings account and mutual funds. For some dumb reason, they didn’t leave a will. My Mawmaw trusted him, as the most successful, to execute her estate fairly and equally. Yet, he decided that his family needed all that money to themselves. And proceeded to pay off his home, buy some land, and new vehicles for his wife and kids on my grandparents life savings.

I grew up close to my grandparents and saw them at least once a month as a kid, and they lived till I was in my 30’s, so I knew them quite well. And I know nothing would have saddened them them more than to see what their son has done.

My mom is the type that never wants to rock the boat and always keep the peace, and wishes I would forgive him. He has told his sibs that he believes it was rightly his because he helped out my grandparents. I know he’s full of shite, and I have nothing but contempt for him.

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The other part that chaps my arse is if you are the one doing well and things are going great you beak your siblings off something. It is beyond ridiculous to keep it all, I dont care what he did for the grandparents.

Just curious, but if there wasn't a will, shouldn't the estate be settled in probate? It's not the best case as the gov't gets involved with the distribution and settlement, but without a will declaring what to do with the assets and funds of the estate, I thought that's when probate was applicable.

My sister was named excutrix to my parents estate. In hindsight I should have asked the courts to grant a neutral third party or added myself as well. I’ve been hung up on, put down or personally attacked over asking questions or asking for financial documents, threaten or been told not to challenge her authority. And even locked out of my parents home.
All I want is transparency and decisions that follow the terms of will.
This has been a disgusting experience with some that i wouldn’t have expected this in a thousand years. Previously we never had a dispute that I can ever recall.
I can’t get a return phone call just very abbreviated texts messages.
It’s shocking

This is something I didn’t learn until few years ago when my aunt died. She told me the backstory before she died, and my mom confirmed it.



Their grandfather was a massively wealthy man in Louisiana. Oil money. Supposedly he owned and drove the first car in Louisiana. His first wife and the mother of his 3 kids died during childbirth (my mom and aunts grandfather/grandmother). He then remarried. The woman raised his 3 kids he had from the deceased wife. They went on to have 2 kids of their own. When he died, she kept all his inheritance and gave it all to her own two biological kids. His first 3 previous kids who she raised got nothing. It seems pretty sickening.

I never understood as a kid why one half of the family was massively wealthy and the other half lived normal semi-meager lives.

It later recently made a lot of sense after my aunt and mom told me the story. What a … well I won’t disparage her name.




His first 3 original kids including my grandfather got nothing. Her own 2 biological kids got everything.

On the opposite side of all the horrible stories above……
We are fortunate that our family was very close and basically drama free our whole lives. On his deathbed, my dad gathered the 5 kids and told us that I would be the “money man”, ie, the lead person to handle the estate.

That was logical as I was on all his accounts and helped him with all financial matters. I am proud to say that while growing up and throughout our lives, my brothers and sisters and I have never fought - had many simple disagreements but nothing that ever lingered.

After the funeral, we 5 kids met and made sure everyone had the same understanding. I would take the lead with handling the estate and any decision made would immediately be shared with all. Everyone has full transparency with the banking accounts and can view at any time - none have ever questioned anything.

While my dad was healthy, we updated all his retirement accounts where each of the 5 children received 20%. We have closed several banking accounts and split equally. We met at the house and each picked what we wanted - again no arguments.

All that is remaining is an estate sale, the sale of his house that we all agreed to sell to a nephew in order to keep it in the family and then close the remaining bank accounts.

Our family is blessed and I am thankful our experience has been positive. I am not surprised as we had wonderful parents who were great role models.

Before passing, my mom had shown me all the drama her and her 8 siblings went thru after my grandparents passed. They itemized every item in the house, placed them in lots of nine and then each picked an item till everything was gone. They could then horse trade with each other if they wished.