I asked my sister for help, but she didn't come through, and I am hurt. Am I being entitled?
To give you a little background, my older sister and I are 15 months apart, and we've always been really close. It has been a few years since I moved to a different country for work after graduating, while she still lives in our home country, but we still stay in contact. I have always tried to be there whenever she needed me. I can take her wedding and the birth of her baby as examples.
A few weeks after returning home from visiting my family, her wedding date was suddenly decided to be in 5-6 weeks. When they told me, I was surprised and told them it was too rushed. I asked (begged) them to push it back by at least a month since I had just come back from a 5-week vacation, and it would be tough to ask for another one, but her fiancé adamantly refused to change the date. I was pissed, but there was nothing I could do. I took 4 weeks off work and returned to "help with the wedding preparations" (I had to postpone a lot of my projects and was kicked out of a course I was taking for missing lectures). Help is actually the wrong word here since I planned the entire wedding. There were four parts: three parties (the before and after wedding parties and the actual wedding) and a photo shoot. So I had to find four different dresses for the bride and bridesmaids, plan the decorations for all the parties, organize the photo shoot, the wedding cake, and bridal makeup. Keep in mind, I had only three weeks to prepare all this and did most of the work myself since my sister was busy with her classes. By the end of the wedding, I was sick from all the stress and was throwing up all night. But in the end, both my sister and parents were really happy with everything, so I was really happy.
And when she had her first baby, I took three weeks off work and went to her despite being 7 months pregnant myself. I wanted to be there for her as emotional support. It took a lot to convince my husband to let me travel since he didn’t feel comfortable with me traveling 15 hours alone while I was that pregnant. In the end, he agreed on the condition that I get a medical check and clearance to fly. When I got the medical certificate, he agreed, even though he wasn’t really happy about it. I spent three weeks with her, and she was really happy about that.
Moving on to the main topic of this post. A few months ago, I traveled back to my home country with my firstborn because neither my parents nor my in-laws had met my daughter until then. At that time, I was 15 weeks pregnant with my second child and suffering from back pain. I split my time between my parents’ and in-laws’ houses. It took a lot of time for my daughter to adjust; the change in weather and environment was a lot for her to handle, which made her very fussy and attached to me. It was such bad timing, as many guests were coming and going at my parents’ house, which made the situation even worse for my daughter, stressing me out even more. By the end of the five-week stay, I was exhausted and at my breaking point. On the night before I returned, I asked my sister to stay over and help me pack my bags because I couldn’t do it myself (due to back pain and my daughter crying every time I left the room). There was no one else to help me, as my parents were too busy tending to guests. She said okay, let me talk to my husband. Then she came back and said she couldn't stay because her husband didn’t want to stay. I was so disappointed I didn’t even know how to respond. So I just said goodbye and went to bed without packing my bag. Just so you understand, it was already 9 pm at that point, and they would be leaving the next day since they were both invited for lunch. My sister said she would come early for lunch. They also didn't have a car, so they’d need to take a taxi home, which would take at least an hour. Just to be clear, I didn't ask him to stay the night; he was free to leave if he wanted to.
Is what I am feeling valid? Or am I just being entitled?
Posted Jun 3, 2026, 11:42 PM UTC