AITA for not wanting a close relationship with my aunt?
I (30F) have never been that close to my aunt(60F). Her whole life she was a police officer and I have always been uncomfortable around her. Every conversation feels like an interrogation or like I'm being analyzed, and anything I say gets back to the whole family as they all talk behind everyone's back.
During the first year of covid, her family invited mine over for Christmas. For context, my family went every year (my mom, my long term boyfriend, and I). On Christmas day when we were getting ready to leave to go to their house, she suddenly asked if my boyfriend was coming. We said yes, as he came every year. She freaked out, saying that he couldn't come because he had been working, and could possibly be exposed to covid. I understood the concern. What I didn't understand was that my mom and I could come, despite being in the same house with him for weeks and me sleeping next to him at night and kissing him.
Her family was asking us to come and leave him at our house alone on Christmas. I said no, I will be staying home with my boyfriend as I wasn't going to leave him alone on Christmas. My mom agreed that she didn't want to go either and leave us both alone. She told her sister, my aunt, that we wouldn't be attending. We ended up going to a convenience store for Christmas dinner while my aunts family got very angry and upset with my mom. This whole situation turned into a two year long fued between my mom and her sisters family. This also upset me because I felt like they were trying to exclude my boyfriend and were upset at my mom when it was me intitailly that decided that I wouldn't be going, which made my mom not go.
After things were smoothed over everything was still very uncomfortable and it was very obvious that my aunts family was still upset.
A year later my mom almost died from sudden health issues, and was in the hospital for over a week. My aunt was kind enough to drive me to and from the hospital as I couldn't drive. However I felt like I was constantly being interrogated and had no support emotionally. When my mom was taken by ambulance and we were waiting in the ER to find out if she was okay and if we could see her, she was at me for not having my driver's license and making me feel like I was a burden. Every time I got home from her driving me I sobbed to my boyfriend about how she made me feel like I was a burden, told me my mom was controlling me, and interrogating me about person things about my mom. (All while my mom was fighting to live.) For example, she would ask my mom a question and if she didn't get what she was looking for, she would question me behind my mom's back. She also made my mom, who had almost died, like a burden.
I know her intentions couldn't have been to make me feel this way but this is the way she has always been. We aren't close, and her and the rest of the family talking about me and my mom and boyfriend behind our backs makes me very uncomfortable.
She has tried for the last year to get me to spend time with her and I always politely decline, but she doesn't seem to take the hint. I have health issues which make it hard, on top of dealing with both of my parents and their own health issues.
My boyfriend ran into her partner a few months ago and they confronted him about how I never see them, that my mom is controlling me and holding me back, that my aunt 'thinks of me as a daughter' and is really upset that I don't see her. She also thinks my mom's strained relationship is what is dictating me not being close with her.
We used to go to holidays with them and in the last few years decided we wouldn't go as much. Everytime we always felt uncomfortable, put on the spot, and gossiped about and realized we didn't want to be apart of that.
AITA for not wanting to spend time with her and have a close relationship?
Posted May 13, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC