The Original Poster (OP), known as u/ivoryc0ffee, posted about the situation in Reddit’s popular “Am I The A**hole” forum where it received more than 15,400 upvotes and 2,000 comments. The post can be found here.
Family Heirlooms
According to a 2020 study conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Shinola, about 42 percent of Americans have a family heirloom that is over 50 years old.
Nearly half of the 2,000 respondents said their family heirloom is their most prized possession, with 29 percent hoping to inherit a piece of jewelry and 32 hoping for an engagement ring.
About 77 percent of those surveyed said they enjoyed learning about their family’s history when they were growing up and more than half said their heirloom is one of their most prized possessions.
‘AITA?’
In the post titled “AITA for saying I’d call the police if a family heirloom wasn’t returned to my adopted daughter?” the 28-year-old woman said she met her husband 10 years ago when his daughter Lily was 6 months old.
After getting married six years ago, the OP legally adopted Lily who recently turned 11.
“In my family, it’s a tradition that the oldest daughter gets gifted an old sapphire ring on her 11th birthday,” the post read. “The ring belonged to my grandmother, who gave it to my aunt, who gave it to me because all of my cousins are male.”
The OP said she gifted Lily the ring on her birthday a few months ago since she is her oldest daughter.
“She loves that ring more than anything,” the post read. “She put it on a chain to wear around her neck so that she could keep better track of it, and in the months that she’s had it, I’ve never seen her take it off.”
Recently when the OP’s sister Mia, 24, dropped Lily off at home after hanging out, she went straight to her room and seemed quieter than normal.
“I thought that maybe she was just tired, so he [husband] and I didn’t immediately ask her what was going on,” the post read. “But later that night I went to go check on her because I wanted to be sure.”
‘Isn’t Really Family’
When she went to speak with Lily, she saw that she had been crying because Mia took the ring from her and said it is supposed to go to the “actual” oldest daughter. Mia told her that since she was adopted, she “isn’t really family.”
“The only reason I didn’t go to Mia’s apartment that night to get it back was because I spent the rest of the evening reassuring Lily that she is my family, and she is 100% my ‘actual’ oldest daughter no matter what our DNA is or what anyone else says,” the post read.
The next morning, the OP left Mia a voicemail saying she needed to return the ring but she texted back saying that she was not giving the ring back unless the OP had a daughter before her.
“But until then she’d keep it safe to make sure I didn’t give it back to ’the wrong person,’” the post read. “So then I told her that if she didn’t return the ring by 2pm that day, I would be calling the police and reporting it stolen.”
Mia told the OP she was “being ridiculous” and “doing too much.” She also got their mother involved who said she thought it was “taking it too far” to contact the police. Her mother also said that Mia was “only trying to keep to the family tradition.”
Redditor Reactions
More than 1,800 users commented on the post, many defending the woman for threatening to call the police.
“NTA. She took a birthday gift from your child and then told that child that she ‘wasn’t really family?’” one user commented. “Your sister is lucky that all you did was say you’d call the cops.”
“I’d be VERY concerned what other things ‘fun aunt’ was saying or doing all those other times now…..,” another user commented.
“NTA. Call the cops to escort you to take it back and on top of that remove her from the pick up list and keep her away from your daughter,” another user commented. “If she truly loved Lilly she wouldn’t do that to her.”
“Yeah, heirloom or not, she stole valuable from your child,” another commented. “Save messages and go to the police to file report. She herself distroyed [sic] your relationship, so feel zero guit [sic].”
“File that police report. It’s not your sister’s place to determine who your eldest daughter is or isn’t,” another user commented.
Newsweek reached out to u/ivoryc0ffee for comment.
Other Viral Posts
In another viral Reddit post, a woman was praised for kicking her daughter out of her house after she pawned off a family heirloom.
One man was slammed after his new wife pressured him to give his adopted daughter his late wife’s family heirloom and another parent was criticized for wanting to give her heirloom bridal veil to her daughter’s bully.
