My cousin said my necklace is “UNHOLY”… but I refuse to remove it! | Reddit Stories | EP2172 - ok storytime

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Sam, this is John, and we are
the founding hosts of Okay Storytime podcasts, and we have
some foundational stories coming up for you. But the thing is,
this foundation needs a little support from these sponsors. So
stick around two minutes and we'll get into the episode.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
My cousin said, my necklace is unholy, but I refuse
to remove it. Don't remove it, keep it on. By
the way, trigger warning, this does have the mention of
the word grape. May seventeenth, twenty twenty five. But there
is an argument ensuing in my family right now regarding
my necklace. I find it to be a pointless argument,
but with the way some of my relatives have been acting,
I've been curious if I am the a.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Hole about it. Let's see, I'm also very curious what
this necklace is? Ooh true, Sam's a fan of necklaces.
I am. I am.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
By the way, this comes from additional effort two to two,
And if you want to submit your own stories, go
to the r slash Okay Storytime subreddit. So for a
little bit of context, I am a hellenist pagan Riley.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Could we get some info on what is that? What
that is? This you got it the Internet info the
Hellenist pagan look that up for those who don't know
what it is. Oh okay, I guess we're getting this
in short terms. You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I worshiped the Greek pantheon while following pagan practices. This
is where my necklace comes into play. Wait, so you're
praying to Zeus beside him?

Speaker 1 (01:17):
I think so, Riley, if you can add some context
on that, Yeah, I freaking go. I was a fan
of Percy Jackson too, So, I mean, the Greek gods
are like, it's lit. You know, it's a cool storyline.
It's the Avengers. It's dude, it's sick, it's I you
know what, I'm not gonna yuck anyone's yum. I would,
I mean I would kind of be down. Plus Pagan,

(01:37):
that's like we just get freaking crazy, right. Yeah. Yeah,
you go, you go around a bonfire yelling stuff. Yeah
that's a cult. No, No, it's pagan rituals. It's lit.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I wear a necklace with in an obsidian stone wrapped
in a wire. The wire is mended around the stone
to look like a pentacle, a pagan symbol that represents
the five elements. But it's often confused for a pentagram,
which that I believe is the evil the star Riley.
You would know that, right, It's like the star of evil,

(02:08):
the summon.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's something like.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I think of like six points is like a devil's symbol,
something like that.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Now I wear this necklace all day, every day. The
times I don't are when I'm sleeping or showering. But
now onto the dilemma. The other day, my uncle hosted
a barbecue and invited my dad along with my brother
and me. Was Satan also invited. That is the question,
where's his invite? Where's Poseidon's invite? Poseidon's invite? Where's Percy Jackson's.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
The whole dude? The the hell cookout? Dude, that's yeah,
Hades cookout. Actually, if we're going Olympians hot wings from
hell Baby.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Everything was going well and I was talking with some
of my cousins when a cousin I'm going to refer
to as Heather noticed my necklace. Heather made a comment
about my necklace, saying it was bold to wear such
an unholy symbol. Knowing most of the family follows the Bible.
I shrugged this off.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
It wasn't the first time someone had made comments like
this regarding my religion.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
In the past. I told her it was fine and
no one should care. She kept pushing, saying that I
should take it off since it was disrespectful to those
who followed God, since a pentagram was a symbol of
the devil.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
All right, and here's op coming in. It's not a pentagram,
it's a whatever thing. It's yeah, it's that thing penta.
It's a whatever, the pentacle a pentacle pentacle? Yeah, dude,
nice memory.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I told her I didn't think so, since my necklace
wasn't a pentagram, I told her to let it go.
It wasn't that big of an issue. Heather argued that
if it wasn't that big of an issue, I should
take the day necklace off. So at this point, other
relatives were starting to look over at us, while my
other cousins told me to just take the necklace off
so Heather would shut up. I again refused, seeing how

(03:47):
if they could wear their crosses, then I could wear
my pentacle. There was a bit more back and forth
with some not nice comments regarding my beliefs, before Heather
finally dropped the subject.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
I'm curious, is is op an actual lever in Poseidon?
Is this? Is this? Like? Is I'm curious if it's
like like a belief or just like you know, like, oh,
like this is like a cool lifestyle thing. I'm really
interested in Greek? What's the word? Or like I am
so a hell of is page? Paganism?

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Is you worship the eight Asian sorry ancient Greek gods
like Zeus, Hera, Apollo, often through rituals, offerings of festivals.
It's about honoring the divine, cultivating virtues, and sometimes connecting
with ancestors.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I'm curious how many people are still following this? Yeah,
following this because I mean it was, It was big
in Roman and Greek times, right, But let's see from
what I can gather, I think op actually like does
believe in them, and like worship op op op is
like doing ritual sacrifices of cows to the gods. Yeah
kind of vibe. Could we also get what a pentacle

(04:49):
looks like? Yeah? So like how close is it? So?

Speaker 3 (04:52):
A pentcacle is your necklace symbol. It isn't a pentagram,
but it is a symbol representing the five elements or spirit, Earth, air,
fire and water. The circle arounds it signifies wholeness and balance.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
It is also can we get a picture though, Yeah,
I'd love to see it. Yeah, because I guess it
has like five and six points. But it's like, yeah,
I get I guess five points. I would mistake it
for a pentagram for oh yeah, dude, Yeah, that's a
tough one. Yeah, tough on. That's a tough one. Did
a pentagram and a pentacle necklace look very similar? A

(05:29):
pentagram is an upside down it's upside down.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, it looks like the pinnacle has like a circle
around it and the pentagram does not have a circle
around it.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Look at a pentagram necklace like satan. But let's get
back into this story and see what kind of rock
sop causes. The rest of the afternoon was kind of soured,
and a few of a relatives were giving me dirty looks.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
I thought that was the end of it. That was
until I got home. I immediately got a text from
several of my relatives saying I was an a hole,
saying I could have just removed the stupid necklace. I
agreed that I could have, but I didn't want to.
My necklace gave me comfort and made me feel more
connected to deits and practices. Apparently this obsessed some people,
because my aunt Heather's mom just replied, what's the matter anyways,

(06:11):
It's not like your gods are real, It's just a
piece of useless jewelry.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Oh, Auntie Heather's mom, what are you doing? I don't
think you can ever say someone's gods aren't real. Yeah,
that's that's a no go. Yeah, yeah, you have your
god fight my gud. Yes, that would be epic.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
This one hurt a lot because I have always been
very respectful and open to everyone's beliefs, even if they
don't align with mine. So seeing someone disregard something so
meaningful to me hurt me. When I asked my dad
about it, he said he didn't understand what Heather's issue was,
but I could have taken the necklace.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Off instead of arguing with her. It's been a day
or two.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
And this got me thinking I could have just taken
off my necklace to keep the peace instead of digging
my heels in the sand until it was high tide.
So reddit am I the a hole for refusing to
take off the necklace? Even after my cousin asked me
to and quick edit to add one of the reasons
they were so bothered is because I was raised in
a church until I was thirteen and started refusing to go.

(07:07):
They saw it as me turning my back on God,
especially since I was atheist for a few years before
turning agnostic then finding my current practices.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
And yes, I know.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Paganism technically isn't a religion, but on top of being
a pagan, I'm also a Hellenist, but I shortened it
to pagan because that's where the symbol I was wearing
derived from.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
While the fact that.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I'm a pagan does annoy them, it's my Hellenism that
causes all the animosity, since they believe my gods, especially
the few I'm fully devoted to, are just myths who
do terrible things. So to answer the question, was Opie
the ahole for during the necklace?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
I think, first off, I think a good way to
look at this is like if OPI was wearing the
a necklace of another religion, like let's say, like a
more mainstream religion. Opie was wearing a Jewish necklace and
was talking about like Judaism would And I know those
aren't the same thing, but like they still be this offended. Yeah,

(07:59):
and they were offended, like, oh, take that necklace off,
like your the way you worship your God is like
not real or whatever. Like would they be the A
hole ord o PB A whole? I think they would
be the A hole? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, And I feel like the rule of thumb here
is like, as long as you're not hurting anybody with
what you're doing, you gotta let people be. Like, for instance,
if I was a punch in the facinist, which is
the strong belief that I have to h deck anyone
I meet for the first time as a worship to
you know, the guy upstairs, Well then I'm I'm freaking

(08:34):
decking people in the face, and now I'm the a hole.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
You know that's a that's an a whole move. But
if you believe that, yeah, as a punch and punch
in the facialists, yes that one day all those who
transgressed you will be punched in the face and you
just wear a fist and you know that's just what
you believe, but you're still punching anyone in the face. Hey,
that's we're chilling. We're fine, We're fine, We're chilling.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
The one thing I will I guess, I guess critique
you could say that I would give to Op is
like when Heather initially asked, he just kind of like
shrugged it off, essentially, when he could have been like, oh, no,
like this is what I believe. I know, it's like similar.
I get the confusion because if it was, like, you know,
there's some other symbols out there that if they look
similar to that, like like if it was like looked

(09:16):
like a swastika or something, or like swastika is a
Hindu symbol for example.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, you could be wearing a Hindu symbol eyes neck
and it'd be miss uh. It would be like, oh, like, oh,
why are you wearing a swatska? No, it's like a
Hindu simply misconstrued. It's so confused.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
When we went to Bali for the first time, yeah,
because they were everywhere and I was like what Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
So I feel like OPI could have if he had
just explained it to Heather and then also the people
around kind of understood. Then at least the group could
be like, oh, yeah, like that's his thing, Like let's
not that's his belief, let's not bother him.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah. So in conclusion, OP, not the a hole. I agree. Yeah,
and the consensus on the story was also not the ahole.
They agree with us.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Commenters tell OP to take off their necklace once her
family removed all.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Their religious paraphernalia. Okay, interesting, so I guess, I guess.
Also part of the consensus was, like, take off the
necklace because they've like when they also remove their religious materials,
which I'm curious what peters, Yes, but there are some
comments from OP speaking of if they'd also insist on
a Jewish or Buddhist person to take off their religious necklace.

(10:18):
To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't have any
a Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist relatives, only a friend who's
curious about being a Buddhist, which only my dad and
brother have met. But religion didn't come up.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
On another topic, somebody says she should gift Heather the
same necklace, so like to buy one for her?

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Should you asking so much about it?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Dude?

Speaker 1 (10:39):
I wanted to give you a it's nice, I got
your favorite stone in it. I really want me to
take it off because you want to wear it? Right? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Oh no, I don't want to take it off, but
I'll get you one. Opie says, she'd probably flip her crap,
but buy the gods? Would that be funny? And clutch
her pearls so quickly? To buy the gods is so great? Yeah,
buy the Gods is great. I love it.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
They think my necklace looks like a pentagram, and that's
what they don't like about it. Even if I tell
them there's a small yet distinct difference between a pentacole
and a pentagram, they tell me it's the same.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Thing, which again would be like, you know, someone wearing
a swastika and it being like like as a Hindu,
the Hindu sam you know, right, and totally like the
context of all that stuff. The only thing I could
think of that would draw attention to it is my fidgeting.
I tend to wear lots of jewelry, rings, bracelets, and

(11:33):
at least two necklaces of different lengths since I use
fidgeting as a way to stem Also, why did I
picture Dakota as they said, lots of freaks.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Unfortunately, my family has a lifelong subscription to not mining
their own dang business.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
And let me tell you it's the premium no ads
in my beliefs. The pentacle is a protective symbol that
represents the elements earth, air, firewater, and spirit, along with
a sacred femine and a connection to the divine, like
the goddess Venus or he Kated he Kate. Why am
I mispronouncing out so terribly? But unfortunately most of my

(12:10):
family only know what the media tells them, which is
a star in a circle equals devil worship. They care
because I left the church when I was thirteen and
remained agnostic until I was seventeen, before I started worshiping
the Greek pantheon. They wanted me to follow the Bible
and not the gods I currently follow. But Hellenism is
a religion. I'm a Hellenist who follows pagan beliefs. Instead

(12:33):
of constantly saying helenis pagan, I shortened it to pagan
since that's where the symbol I was where it came from.
And besides my necklace, the only other pieces of jewelry
related to my practices that I have are laurels and
some symbols pertaining to specific gods. I worshiped. No pentacles,
though what's a laurel? Also, Tempest has a great thought

(12:56):
by that logic, and upside down cross is the same
as a cross, which is the Catholics will go insane.
You try to say that, oh, so like an upside
down you know pentacle, which is just a pentagram is
also yeah, so maybe it is more more akin to
the swastika example of like you know, oh, it's the
same symbol, but it was like used in a completely

(13:16):
different context.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Or like, uh, the star David has six points and
then the pentagon pentagram has only five.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Right, so it's like looks similar but yeah. Another point,
someone said to tell them their necklace represents a judgy
guy in the sky, so I guess, you.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Know, put a comical spin on it. I wouldn't want
to stoop to their level, since I have several gods
that sit on a mountain and judge everyone. Uh, it
would be really hypocritical of me. I would have left,
but I didn't drive there.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
My dad did, and it would have been over an
hour walk back to my house.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And we have an update. Here's my question. Does Op
do anything further? Does he reach out like kind of
like preemptively to avoid any more fallouts and be able
to do just like wear what OPI wants or should
OPI kind of just like continue living their life.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
I don't think it's Op's job to like preemptively educate
his family, but I do think in not doing so
and going into like a religious context, or like going
into a group of people that have this religious context,
you might run into problems like this. So if you're

(14:28):
not doing some kind of education, you might just have
a little bit more drama. But you're not the a
hole for not educating people. It's just like you might
run in you might run into uneducated people.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I feel like you don't have to preemptively do it.
Maybe if it comes up again, it's like take the
time to be like, Okay, here's what it is. Cause
like in fairness, someone recognizing it as a pentagram, which
as we saw looking at it, it's very very like
looks very similar. I feel like that would be able
to like at that point soon super clear. That's like, Okay,

(15:01):
Opie's not the a hole. You've given them the full
education and they're still crapping on you. Yeah, but we
have an update six days later. Okay, So hello everyone.
I posted here a few days ago regarding the family
drama around my necklace. Thank you so much for the support.
I really appreciate it. I got a few comments requesting
an update, so here it is. A day or two ago.
I finally worked up the courage to actually call my cousin,

(15:22):
who I've referred to as Heather, for this. So it
looks like Opie is going on the offensive and it
is going for the productive approach. Surprisingly, she was very
calm during her discussion, so I took the chance and
asked her why she got so upset about my necklace.
I asked if she was that deep in her own
religion that she hated mine and she and she was
clearly annoyed and told me to drop it. I told
her no, I wanted an answer. Turns out, she didn't

(15:45):
care about the necklace. She cared about what it represents.
When I asked her to clarify what she meant by that,
she told me that she could care less about the paganism,
but what she had a problem with was my Hellenism,
more specifically the gods I worship, which I feel like
brings Heather into even more a whole territory.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's like, okay, now you're like.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
You understand, you understand, and you're bashing the religion because
of like basically again, because of a personal thing that
doesn't affect anyone else.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Ye, it's like this is just Opie's personal belief.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
For context, I am a devot of several of the
Greek Greek gods, a few of which being Lord Zeus.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
And Lord Apollo. Shout out deuce, so OPI does, yes, specifically, dude,
man in the cloud, Man in the cloud? What was
Apollo lightning? Apollo was? I believe like the the he
had like a bow, god of like wisdom and the
moon and stuff. Right, that sounds accurate. Yeah, there's this bow.
Oh oh, I thought he was just doing the the

(16:46):
old flex. Yeah, it just happens to work perfectly. Is
it the sun god? Or is it maybe Apollo is
to be looking pretty sunny and not and not moon?
I was. I was thinking, with the.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
God of sun light, music, healing, prophecy, and archery, let's
let's spread those around a little bit.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
He's freaking hog and all the archery music and the sun.
That's a little ode. He's got a lot, He's got
a lot. He's a guy. Is he the guy that
has the chariots that pull the sun? I think so
that also sounds accurate.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, she brought up how at the barbecue, when everyone
was talking about the storms we were having, I made
a joke saying, looks like Zeus is finally giving us
a break while while I was fidgeting with my necklace.
To say I was surprised was an understatement. I was
sure that she was just being a quote unquote loving Christian,
and I truly thought it was an issue with changing religions.

(17:33):
I think what Opie is suggesting is she thinks that
he was doing some kind of ritual or something like,
oh also she oh, she yeah, sorry, that she was
doing some sort of ritual with it, like some in
you know, demons or you know, the gods for rain
or whatever Nina and Nina Nelson says that's just a

(17:54):
mainstream joke, which I think is what Opi was meaning
it as. So I asked why she didn't like my gods.
This is when she started getting upset again. She snapped
at me, saying it was obvious why she didn't like
my gods and asked how someone who'd had bad experiences
in the past can support gods who were known for
being cheaters, womanizers, and grapists. She told me that I

(18:18):
was a trader as a woman, and a horrible person
for worshiping someone like that.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
The Greek gods do be philandering. I didn't realize how
filanderous they were. They are in dude, they're going down
every like few years to knock up some human. They
have like a bunch of Demi babies they like, yeah, dude,
they are. Yeah, the Greek Greek mythology is philanderous.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I think I was reading from the Florida patriotic textbooks.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
No, Zeus was was slang and wang and also, I
mean like they's just also very violent too, right. It's
actually funny that we're taking a feminist approach to well.
I was not expecting Heather to be like, well, I
mean your gods aren't feminists? Like yeah, yeah, dude, like

(19:12):
get more progressive. Especially Zeus. Onion says, yeah, especially Zeus.
I mean here that Elena says Zeus the og boy.
That's funny, yeah, dude, f boy oh man. Yeah. Also
maybe says also sweet Home Alabama. Uh and yeah, there's
a lot of inbreeding, a.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Lot of brotherly and sisterly love, if you catch our drift. Yeah, Well,
OPI says, my flabbers were gasted. I took a few
seconds to calm down and take a deep breath before
I explained to her that the gods were portals of
how things were during that time of worship. Ancient Greece
wasn't very good to women, so that was reflected in

(19:51):
the gods. By the way, if you want a ungodly
amount of content for you to consume at your leisure,
gonna Spotify, Apple or I Heart and Search. Okay, story time, guys,
we got over twenty one hundred episodes on the pod. Uh,
so check it out. We've got tons of stories of
fun ones just like this. But before we get into

(20:12):
the end, there's there's a little bit left here. I
was not expecting this was a curveball of the usually
get these kind of curveballs here.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
I do think that Heather's right, Zeus was not a feminist.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, yeah, if if we're getting into this theological debate, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Mean, any any pagans in the chat pipe up? Yeah, Like, actually,
I guess the response is like it was a the
gods were reflection of the time which wasn't that kind
to women. Was like, I mean, like can you can
you judge a man or a god for their past.
I guess that is a question.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
We're we're we got into a deep theology today. Forget
forget relationship.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I don't know. I feel like I think you can
still judge judges Zeus if he was he was, you know,
making nasty. But I'm glad he's changed. If that's what's happened.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
There, you go, Uh, maybe this is the distinction here
to like, like the actual thing to do with Heather
is like, hey, you can have an opinion on the religion,
but I feel like Heather brings it into a personal
attack or like stopping op from like wearing their necklace
that brings them comfort. Like yeah, she's it's a great
area obviously, but like.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Also, just as a rule, you're never gonna win by
criticizing someone's religion, Like the best way to get someone
to follow your belief system is to like live it
so well that they're like, well, dang, why is your
life so good? And like, well, it's because of Zeus.
Like like then then maybe you can or it's because

(21:47):
of Jesus or like whatever whatever your belief system might be.
And I think Heather is going around it the wrong way.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Are you telling me that it's not a good idea
to convert to pester your other failing members the family barbecue?

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Is that what you're telling me? That's how Jesus. Uh,
that's how Jesus did it. He wasn't like, oh, like,
let me live the life. He was like, please, please,
please leave me? Please? No, that is not how he
did it. Now, Bro, Jesus pulled to the cookout. He's like, yo,
I got I got wine. What are we doing Jesus
throwing a cookout? He's a gentleman? All right? Are you

(22:23):
ready for this grand finale? Here?

Speaker 2 (22:25):
She just got annoyed with me, saying that it didn't
make what people believe the Greek gods did, right. I
just said I understood her view on things, but I
asked her to not disrespect my gods, even if they
have done some bad things in the myths and portraits,
especially since her god is no saint either. That clearly
upset her. Yeah, here we go, and she hung up

(22:45):
on me, not before telling me my gods were worse.
That hurt a lot more than anything else. She said before, Well,
I understand how someone who's only heard the bad about
the gods could find it, vexing that they could have devotees.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
I will admit.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
After the call with my cousins, I went to the
altar and left some food offerings as an apology before
going to bed, although I didn't sleep much due to what.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
My cousin said. Wait, went to the altar? Like went
to the altar? Get uh the Helenists? Well yeah, but
where where are there just Helenis altars around? Pull up?
No way, there's a Hellenis altar where I put them
in their house? Okay, yeah, I can imagine that. But
if there's like a public Hellenist altar where I can
like smoke an ox or something.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Like Riley, please find the nearest pagan slash Helenist alter
to where we can go to right now?

Speaker 1 (23:32):
That would be sick.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
This is a bit of a weird update and it
wasn't what I was expecting. But now I know she
doesn't care what I choose to worship. But who Thank
you for all who chose to support me on my
last post. Hopeless shed some light on the situation, and
that is that for that story. But we have another
one coming up. John here og host, We're gonna get
back to these stories, but a quick three minute break

(23:54):
from as from our sponsors, I.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Refuse to give money for my sister's wedding. It made
the family, the Ayes, become a billionaire. Growing up, my
sister and us were extremely close, but over the years
as we got older, we noticed how badly she would
treat our mom, who is a single mom, and how
she would often side with mom's family and discussions usually
revolving around mom decision to raise us alone. Note my

(24:17):
brother and my dad passed away when my mom was
seven and a half months pregnant. Sad by the way,
this comes from five Hattie. If you want to submit
your own stories, you're the r slash okay storytime story
about it. So it all hit a breaking point when
we turned eighteen. My sister and our birthdays are in
the same week, so there was always talk about a
joint eighteen and twenty first party for us. We never

(24:38):
had any issue with this at first, we were all
for the idea, but when the party started getting planned,
our mom was left out of all of it and
our all let's caller Jane stepped in and took over
it all. We had no idea at the time right,
So I guess Mom was being left out and what
could be a lovely moment of a mother celebrating in
eighteenth and twenty first birthday for her daughters. Yes, we

(25:00):
were barely seventeen at the stage that they had already
started planning. It only found out when our sister, let's
call her Grace called us, which was rare to get
a message from her, asking us if they could be
reimbursed for the money they'd spend on the party. We
had a trust account set up from when our dad's
life insurance was paid out to us, and we agreed
to it. All right, but I'm hoping it's not some

(25:22):
you know, they're not going to any ice sculptures up
in here, oh where it's like super expensive? Are they
trying to go all out and they're going to drain
drain the life insurance? Right? So I asked Mom if
she knew about the party, and she said no. A
month before the party, we got down to the main point,
the guest list. The room, which my brother and I

(25:43):
paid for could hold one hundred and twenty people. Are
you we're expecting to have roughly even split of the
guest list, thirty five each for us, fifty for her,
But when we saw the list, it was ninety percent
her friends and family that we don't speak to, only
giving us fifteen bases roughly two tables to use. So
the actual people celebrate the birthday only have like ten

(26:05):
percent of the guest list. Ridiculous. We were pissed, but
she screamed at us, calling us insensitive and grateful for
everything she has done for us growing up. This is
the aunt, dude. No, she'd done nothing for us. We
just loved her, so we relented and took what we could.
Knew it would be a losing battle. But you're also
paying for this. I don't know. I don't know if

(26:27):
that makes sense. You like, get out of here? Auntie
slam the door, Yeah, slammed the door. A week before
the party at our grandma's house. Our family nanstep granddad, aunt, uncle, sister.
That's listing the family members right, and her boyfriend got
a bit wasted and started on about how bad our
mom was and how she done so many things wrong.

(26:50):
Uh oh, But what pissed us off the most was
when our nan said, I bet you at your party
you will be holding her head up high, claiming glory
for the parenting we've done, not her. That one comment
was enough to make my brother and I leave quite angry. Again.
This is the nan saying like, oh, we did all

(27:13):
the parenting, your mom did nothing.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Dude, And Nana is like grandma grandma dude. That is insane,
especially considering how her husband tragically passed away while she
was still pregnant. Like, yeah, insane, little sack a doodle
do insane.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
The night of the party wasn't too bad. The family
kept their mouth shuts and we actually had a decent
time until the slide show started. Oh here we go.
Of about three hundred photos huh three hundred, John, I's
too many, which was fifteen minutes long. There were ten
photos of my brother and I ted. Wow, I'm just imagining,

(27:52):
like like two hundred and ninety selfies. Love the adt Yeah,
this is ridiculous. At least she put you in there.
Yeah right, Oh, you should be great, you should be grateful. Yeah. Yeah.
And then at the end, and these are the other
two people, but the rest were of our sister, our
youngest cousin, Auntie's kid, and her boyfriend's family. Many at

(28:12):
this party had no idea it was our birthdays as well,
until the cake was cut. They came up to us
afterwards and said happy birthday. My brother and I eventually
stuck away with her mom and went to the pub
to have our own birthday toast with just us and
our mates. I'm waiting for the bill to drop, dude. Honestly, Sue, Sue,
you're on ridiculous for the birthday money. Not long after,

(28:35):
my brother and I went to UNI and our contact
with the family was limited to a few messages a month.
We tried to keep in contact, but they wanted nothing
to do with us. When the time came for our
twenty first birthday, our sister and family were back in
contact with us, partially because our trust account was being
released when we were twenty one, under the guise of

(28:57):
planning a big party for us. They're just trying to
get little peace, dude. We told them we didn't want one,
just wanted a quiet night with mom and our close mates,
but they wouldn't hear it. We ended up missing. The
big party they planned for us was on a weeknight
and we were still at UNI in another state, so
we copped a lot of heat from the family about that.
But after a week. It went from your ungrateful see

(29:18):
you next tuesdays to hey, what are you both coming
back down? Should go out for dinner? So we made
the plans and came back. Dinner went as we expected
it to, as it always does, a good hour of
them bashing mom and her parenting and taking credit for
the fact that we were in Uni. My brother is
studying law and I'm in medicine and sports. Let's freaking go.

(29:40):
I'm just this.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
This family is giving a migraine, and I'm like, why
do we keep coming back?

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah? Yeah, at least maybe setting a boundary of like, listen,
we would love to have, you know, a fun, extended
family time. That's always great. Yeah, but you cannot stop
bashing mom. Stop bashing mom, but stealing. I remember earlier
they mentioned a trust. Yes, I believe from the dad's
life insurance policy.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Okay, because maybe they're bashing mom to see that she's
an unfit parent and maybe get their hands on the trust.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
But in some way, they're over twenty one, so I
think it falls straight to them. I think they're just
trying to grease This is what I think is happening.
They are saying, hey, hey, hey, you know your mom
did nothing. We really did everything for you. I see
that's this trust that you have. I trust that you

(30:34):
would give us all that money because of all the
things we did for you. Yeah, it really really belongs
to us. We do as in stealing your birthday money.
I don't think you should have contact with these people.
It's so transparent what they're trying to do here. Yeah,
and how it was because of their influence. We've come
this far, which is complete b us. But the night
really hit a good note when Grace said, Hey, so

(30:57):
the trust account comes out soon? Right? We knew this
is coming. Yeah, just wanted to know if I could
have some because Shane and I are looking at moving
out from his parents' house and need about thirty thousand
dollars for a deposit. Stop it.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
I actually need to sue you for three one hundred
thousand dollars because you stole my eighteenth birthday and the
emotional distress, the emotional damage. That is emotional damage, ladies
and gentlemen.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
That is payoff. Just said we'll get back to you
and left for the next week. We got a phone call,
and another phone call, and another phone call asking us
if she could have the money. Ultimately, please don't tell
me you gave them money. No, please, no. After chatting
to our mom, who told us we didn't have to
give her anything. She had her own account and went
through it quickly, we called Grace and told her that

(31:48):
we are not going to just give her the thirty
thousand dollars, but we would lend her it.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
No, no, no, no, no, no, we want it's gone.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's gone. It's gone, it's gone. They're gonna put it
all on black dude. Oh my god. Yeah, they will
make that thing dis appear, make her sign something and
receive payments, and to cover us legally if she could
not pay us. Okay, well that's a step most bad.
I still hate this. Yeah, I don't like this. They
take a step that most people don't even think about. Yeah.
I mean, at the very least, there's signings of paperwork.

(32:24):
But I'm of the opinion don't lend money to friends
or family that you're not prepared to lose. Yeah, here's
how I look at it. It's like, oh, they didn't
break their whole leg, they just broke their foot. Let's
just not break any bones. Yeah exactly. Let's let's let's
stay away from breaking any time, you know, like protect
yourself a bit. She was furious, called us ungrateful, see

(32:44):
you next Tuesdays and hung up. Hopefully it didn't accept.
We didn't speak to her for three years. Last year
we got a phone call from our telling us she
was getting married to her deadbeat boyfriend. He's unemployed thirty
and it hasn't had a job that lasted more than
one because he hates doing things. What a winner. And
she wanted fifty thousand dollars for us to pay for

(33:06):
the wedding and the honeymoon. Where do you get off?
I know, like, how are you? Like?

Speaker 2 (33:11):
What could you guys imagine asking someone for thirty or
fifty thousand dollars?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Thousand dollars is crazy unless the trust has like a
billion dollars in it, even a billion dollars. Yeah, Like really,
if someone has a billion dollars, you'd be like I would.
I would be comfortable being like, hey, uh, invest in
this thing I'm doing because like, oh, I believe in this,
and like, Okay, it's not that much money for you
that I think I would feel good, but like invest

(33:36):
in our wedding, in this beautiful union, this partnership, This
legal partnership, a legal document that we're creating is going
to be beautiful. Well one of the projected margins. Yeah,
exactly thirty percent. Dude, just livestream the wedding. Chat boom,
we got that. You know what to do, We'll locked it,
blow it up. We were taken back by it. We
said that we would meet her to go over things

(33:58):
in a possible payment plan. Not just going to give
her fifty thousand dollars when she hasn't spoken to us
in years. Go to a bank. Just just give them
the number of a bank. She yelled us over the
phone and hung up on us. A few weeks later,
we had a visitor at our mom's place. We were
home for a few weeks. Unie was on break. It
was the lady in charge of the flowers for the wedding.

(34:21):
Oh no, she said, our sister had given her this
address to discuss payment with us. We had no idea
about this and told the lady that we had no
idea what she meant, we never agreed to this, and
that we were very sorry she wasted her time. She
apologized to us and left. An hour later, we got
a phone call from Grace calling us yet again, ungrateful

(34:42):
to see you next Tuesday. It's just a large vocabulary
and how we are ruining her wedding by being so selfish,
So we hung up on her. In the last couple
of months, we've had several businesses call us wanting to
discuss payment for things and services they have given to Grace.
One was a wedding planner who wanted six thousand dollars.

(35:04):
We told them they should take it up with Grace,
not us. Recently, our family from overseas, our dad's family,
have been in contact with us, telling us how disappointed
they are and how we are upsetting our sister. To
get some information before you start casting stones. Yeah, how
can we possibly say?

Speaker 2 (35:20):
It's either it's either your insane or you don't have
enough information.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Yeah, it was the only two things. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. We
haven't said anything to them about Grace and the wedding
and her wanting us to pay for it all. So
we were taking aback by this. Told them what had
been going on, and they apologize to us promptly. Okay.
The next day we get a call from Grace. Here
we go, I wonder what vocabulary words we might get
it from Grace now, who was fuming more so than

(35:47):
usual about how we poisoned the family against her by
the state. I was fed up with her being so selfish,
so I yelled back, they aren't even your family, they
are ours. It was our dad, not yours. We have
different dads. Hers the old one tude. Their mom threw
a cupboard when she was pregnant with Grace. Oh my, yes,

(36:09):
After I said that I knew I went too far,
she started screaming, crying and hug up. Mark, my twin
just hugged me and said, f er By the way,
you should always give us a hug. Yes, by listening
to full episodes the stories just like this, Go to Spotify,
Apple Podcast, or your favorite podcast app and search. Okay, storytime,

(36:33):
there's another relevant update John, But let's discuss what do
you think about this whole situation. Do you think Opie
is handling it? Well?

Speaker 2 (36:42):
I mean, so, first off, this family is just so
clearly insane. Yeah, and just like a clear cutcase of
like just don't don't interact, don't don't don't respond, don't
even engage. I think you know, look, OPI is trying
to be kind and like they either like, we'll do
the loan and everything, but it's too kind.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
It's too kind. We are lighting ourselves on fire to
keep others warm with these people, so I don't have
to think about it. I cannot claim credit for that. Okay,
here we go. That is a John Fry original, not

(37:25):
at all shout out to my sister.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
I think OP is so within the right to be like, hey,
I'm not engaging with you all you. I call you,
you call me is see you next Tuesday, and then
hang up and ask for more money in a year,
like like that's literally our whole ritual.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
I'm blocking you. I'm done with this and that's up. Yeah, dude,
I don't think you need to keep showing out for
this relationship. I totally agree.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
And if you want to ask for money, this is
how you do it. Guys, would you like to invest
in what a lot of rich people invest in in
a timeshare of an underground bunker where you can and
pick two weeks out of the whole year and being
this on the ground bunker in case something bad happens.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
But you're you're you're shut out of luck if you
don't get the right two weeks but.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Think it's a gamble because you have to pick the
right two weeks.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
What rumble documentary sponsor? Did this come from? Guys like
to talk to you real quick about bunkers are okay?
You can go online book any two weeks you want,
and if the apocalypse happens to fall that time, bam
bam boom, you're ready.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
You will survive. I'm ready to invest. I just need
two million dollars. God he's back in a year. It's
been three weeks since that phone call. We've had the
majority of Mom's family get in touch with us, mainly
to yell at us, calling us every name under the sun.
Grace's fiance has told us if he sees us, you
will get us. He has ties with a bike gang

(38:55):
here and was a substance dealer for a bit. So
we are a little misch shaken by that. We've spoken
to the police, but since it was all over the
phone with no physical proof, there's nothing that can be done.
What should we do with the situation that hasn't been
done already? Should we just back down and give it
some peace? Which should we stick to our pupews and
risks possibly get hurt in the process, and there is

(39:15):
a slight update. But what do you think, John, Just
just go no contact. I don't care. I don't care
if you stick to your guns, your message, I don't care.
Just block them for the love of God. Yeah, Like
at this point, it's getting frustrated and it's like you
were only hurting yourself here, Like what are we doing? Yeah? Agreed,

(39:36):
And here's the update. So thank you to everyone who
commented on the post. We're not expecting so many comments
based off the suggestions. We're changing our numbers and keeping
the old ones in case they call us and leave
a voicemail which we can use if things go south.
And we're going to look into our security in the
bank and a fixed terms deposit to protect the bulk
of our money. And that is finally the action that

(39:59):
we needed. Thank god. Finally they're making some good move.
Get a bunker for your money. Yeah, that's where that
story ends. And I think that's where this episode ends. Nope,
don't we all are more?

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I think this is not where this episode ends. Hey
is John og host. We're gonna get back to the stories,
but a quick three minute break of ads.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
From our sponsors. My dog growled at my niece. Now
my brother wants him. Gone get that dog out of here. Bark, bark, bark, bark,
Hi everyone. I have fostered a multitude of dogs in
my life and dealt with a lot of behavioral problems
dog aggression, cat agression, food aggression, angry food, a separation, anxiety,
super high prey drives. I've seen it all, and I've

(40:34):
certainly encountered my fair share of dogs who weren't safe
around small children. So I feel extremely confident in saying
my current five year old lab mix is safe for kids.
He's basically a giant teddy bear who loves everyone.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
By the way, this comes from throwaway toddler Dog and
if you want to submit your own stories, go to
the r slash Okay Storytime subredits. So it's always been
my personal philosophy that dogs and any other animal really
should never be left alone with young kids, even if
it's the sweetest.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Most mild mannered dog in the world. The kids don't
understand when they're pushing the dog past its limits, and
the dog cannot reasonably be expected to put up with
being pestered long after it signaled that it would like
to be left alone. Have an okay story. Tom uh oh, oh,
you heard the grouse, stay away. My niece has never

(41:23):
been good with my dog. She pulls his tail, climbs
on slash, lays on him, hits him, pulls his ears,
gets in his face, and yells at him, and never
gives him a second to himself. She's forced to so Basically,
any second that this toddler and the dog are in
the same room, she is just hounding him. Absolutely nice, nice,

(41:46):
That's all I had to say. I was going to
say something, but then he said hound. I'm like, yep.
So he's basically a saint with her, but every dog
has its limits. I stay on top of his behavior
as it can, forcing her to leave him alone when
it starts to seem like much, and locking him away
in a bedroom if she won't. My brother and sister
in law thirty female really just don't get it, though.

(42:07):
I've tried to talk to them about this behavior a
bunch of times, and they know it's wrong, but they
think it's wrong in the same way that her refusing
to share or not picking up her toys is wrong.
They don't understand that it's dangerous and that if she
was left alone long enough with my dog. My doggie
might lose it and attacker. This has been going on
for over a year. I've tried to have the conversation

(42:29):
with my brother over and over, but he always acts
like I'm criticizing his parenting, which is not the case.
I don't think my niece is especially braddy, You're out
of control for a kid that age. If it's just
that this behavior is dangerous to both her and my
dog and it needs constant intervention, the same way that
a small kid playing with a stove isn't especially bratty,
it's just especially dangerous and needs to be curbed asap.

(42:52):
That's a good analogy. Yeah, I like that. I've even
tried having a dog trainer friend explain this to him,
but he still doesn't get it. Okay, I think we
need to Uh we needed an elaborate ruse for this.
We need to have someone maked documentary on run on
or or YouTube on why leaving a kid alone with

(43:13):
a dog is dangerous and they'll be like, oh, I
got this do like movie tickets, Like let's all go.
I got I got some dog stories, bro, you got
some dogst We got to do stories. Okay, guys, stick
around to the end of this episode. But you should not.
You should not like a dog you do not know.
You should not put your face close to Yes, yeah,
don't do that. Word to the wise. I got you know,

(43:34):
I got bit in the eye by a freaking crazy dog.
Was it? This was like a few years ago. It's
like a year or two ago. Yeah, oh wow, that
was more. Yeah, dude, it like it like it like
like sliced my eye open. Then I couldn't open my
eye for a while. A year or two ago, was
I around? Yeah? Yeah, yeah it was someone we know,
this crazy dog. That dog should not exist. Was the

(43:57):
one that was running around Pean in our house. No, no, no,
that one, not that that's a nice dog. That dog
can barely open its mouth. That dog is a pug,
and Van's face is so squished that it could it
could even venture to try to eat my eyeball.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
I was thinking of another one. Wow, there's multiple dogs
that just run around being in the house.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
But back to this sweet dog here in the story.
I've tried to.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Come up with excuses for why we could never meet
at my house for family hangouts, but I couldn't think
of one. The other day, and my brother and niece
came over. I was cooking dinner and not paying enough
attention to make sure my dog was okay, which was
absolutely my fault, and I do accept responsibility. I asked
my brother a few times to keep her away from
my dog, but he kept saying that she was fine.
I did move my niece away from him a few times,

(44:44):
but I wasn't vigilant enough, and my dog ended up
getting to the end of his rope and growled at
my niece.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
A little growl. After all that of use, would you
you got one, Sam? You got a good one? I loved,
I loved chips growl. Yeah, he doesn't. He just grows it.
It's like it's like a Mongolian thirst, singing and a
bark combined. And it's so cute. Man. Oh what a

(45:15):
dog Christian like. I could talk about him all day.
So I immediately grabbed my dog and brought him into
my bedroom. I did not punish him at all.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Frankly, I'm glad that he signaled loud and clear that
he was uncomfortable. I would never want to discourage him
from doing that, because the next time he'd skip the
growling and.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Go straight to attack. Oh my god, that would not
be good, not good at all. So I came out
of the room writing to talk to my brother about
how this is what I've been talking about. But he
was furious. How are you furious? That doesn't make any sense. Hey,
you're your dog.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, I can never control my kid, who is a
human who is starting to understand language. But you should
control your dog. You should speak dog knees and talk
to your dog.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Okay. He yelled that my dog is a tennis who
should be put down and left. No for growling, not
on my watch, dude, you guys can get on on here,
and Opie says, I completely understood his reaction. Opie agrees
for growling, bro, these guys are way too understanding. Opie says,

(46:18):
that's his daughter and he was afraid for her and
nothing else mattered to him. But he hasn't calmed down
at all since has happened, and won't talk to me
except to say my dog needs to be put down,
and he won't be speaking to me until it's done.
So she's like, hey, do we want to do like
maybe a little like a summer barbecue, get some ribs.
He's like, put your dog down put, we can have
your daughter. That's the only ribs I'm interested in right now.

(46:41):
He also tried to involve our parents, who said they
will absolutely not be getting involved. They know my niece's
behavior with my dog has been a problem in the past.
Just quick aside.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
If you were like in your like late twenties, thirties, forties,
and you're involving your parents in something like this, that's
fricking whack. Grow Grow up, grow You're an adult.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Come on. I have not heard from my sister in
law at all, which makes me think she might agree
with me. Knowing her personality type, I don't think she'd
sit out a fight like this if she thought that
my that my dog was dangerous. The way I see it,
this is solely my fault and my brother's faults. I
shouldn't have had allowed my niece to pester my dog.
I knew what could happen, and I was more concerned
about how upset my brother got when I tried to

(47:24):
bring it up than I was about my niece's safety.
I should have just said my niece wasn't allowed my
dog until she's got a bit older, and dealt with
whatever fallout there was. Within the family. This is all
over a growl. Of course, go to jail, put the
dog down. Ridiculous, it's you know, call the police. Rowlling
is a dog's way of letting, you know, to get

(47:45):
just like back off, stop pulling my hair. I feel
like it was like like just like that, like simple,
not not like like, oh I'm going about to rip
you limb from them.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah, not like that. Yeah, none of that. Similarly, my
brother should have kept a better eye and his kid
and not been so defensive when I tried to explain
the problem. My dog, on the other hand, put up
with being pasterned for over a year, and when he
was finally pushed to his limits, signaled very loudly and
harmlessly that he needed to be removed from the situation.
He's not dangerous and I will not put him down.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Thank god. Amen.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
My brother is now saying that the entire family has
sided with a dog over his child, which is not
the case. It's just that there are lots of solutions
to this problem. I am perfectly happy to create my
dog when they come over, or leave him in another room,
or just never have them over again and hang out
somewhere else. There's no reason for my niece to ever
see my dog again. And I'd be happy to talk

(48:40):
over a solution with him. It's just that he won't
talk to me at all, and I don't know what
to do. Should I give him more time to cool off.
Should I go over to his house and try to talk.
I don't want to ruin this relationship. We are very close,
but I'm just not putting my dog down over this.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Thank god there is an update. I'm concerned that it
feels like it's even a question. Yeah, Like even saying
like I'm not putting my dog down over this, like
feels like like, yes, I'm glad that you're putting your
foot down, but the foot should have been put down
many steps before. Yeah. I think, like, yeah, Opie's just

(49:19):
way too considering. I will say I do get especially
in the moment, which I think OPI was trying to say,
when a parent sees some sort of like imminent threat
to their child kind of freaking out and maybe over overreacting,
which I think the brother did. But it's like he
still does not and he won't even like talk about

(49:39):
solutions like and he I think the brother is so
stubborn and not willing to be community. It's an issue
of communication because he didn't come a solution before and
won't know. I think maybe a little bit of distance
fan the brother time out timeout.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
A similar situation happened in my family with the truck.
My uncle gave my brother a truck and my brother
was like, Oh, I'm gonna put like things on the
truck and do all these things, and my uncle's like, no,
it's my truck, even though my brother bought it from him.
So he just ended up having to return the truck,
and my uncle did the mature thing, was like, I
don't want this to ruin our friend, like our family

(50:14):
or anything like that, so let's find a compromise, and
they did so. Honestly, I think a little bit more
time and if he can't come to his senses, I
mean over a dog, is he really willing to do
like tear the family apart over that?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
He just might be let's find out here. So update.
Hey everyone, thanks so much for the advice on my
previous post. It blew up while I was asleep and
I couldn't respond to everyone's comments, but I did really
appreciate all the people who took good time to give
me advice on how to handle my brother. This update
is kind of a mixed bag. My family has been
having dinner together one night a week since the pandemic started,

(50:49):
usually at my parents' house. This week, I thought my
brother and his family would sit it out and it
would be just me and my parents, But my sister
in law showed up without my brother or niece. She
said she I absolutely did not want to discuss what happened,
so we didn't. But I can't imagine how pish she
must be at my brother to openly go against him
so she could attend a dinner with her in laws.

(51:10):
So that's good. Yeah, Like it seems like like, hey,
I'm kind of showing up in solidarity, and like, because
it's with the in law, she's going into enemy territory,
so it seems like they're not enemies. Since dinner went
well and we all had a good time, I decided
to send my brother a textas morning and try to
make amends. The text I sent, hey, Bud, we missed
you and Niice at the dinner last night. I was

(51:32):
hoping he'd come by so we could talk about what
happened with Nie and the dog. I understand why you're upset,
And I'm really sorry that Nice was scared. You know
how much I love Nice and I'd never want anything
bad to happen to her. I absolutely won't put down
my dog though he's not dangerous. It's just that he
can't talk. So he growled, dog and ease. A growl

(51:52):
is so chill. I'm just ugh, yeah, it's not that
big of a deal annoying to communicate that he wanted
Nice to leave him alone. He's a family member to me.
I can't put him down. You don't be crazy. How
many of your foster dogs growled? Oh? Do you ever
have a growl? Oh? For sure, I mean most of them.
Some are scared. It was mostly like like like like

(52:15):
a scratching up like couches like things like that. But
yeah you had some, you had some. Me's sure. Well
a lot of barks, Yeah, a lot of barks. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
like a lot of growling and barking like it's it's
it's totally like op he said. It's their way of
saying like kidding. It could be it could be like hey,
I am threatening you, like more unprovoked or whatever, but
like it's in this case, I think it was cut

(52:36):
and dry. He's like, yo, stop stop bopping me on
the nose top. Yeah, growl. A growl is a boundary
being set, dude. Doggy boundaries. Doggy boundaries. That is so true.
I say doggy style. Oh god, Sam's favorite.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Not my favorite, especially when he didn't do anything wrong.
But there's lots of other solutions we could work on
to keep me safe. I'm totally fine if no one
in our family he ever wants to see dog again,
or if you want, we can talk with a dog
trainer friend to try to figure out something that keeps
everyone safe. You know, I think you're a great dad
and doing an awesome job with niece, but I really
think she would benefit from understanding how to trude animals.

(53:13):
The next dog she meets might not be as relaxed
as mine, and she could really get hurt. We can
work on teaching her together. Do you want to come
meet me for dinner next week? I can come to
you and we can get take out from our restaurant.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
I miss you. And here is a text that Opie
gets in return from the brother that's gonna be whack.
Here we go, gotda be so whacked once? Again, what
an opener.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
You and everyone else chose a dog over my human child.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
The dog didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
It doesn't matter what Nie did. She is a human
and deserves to be safe.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
You're really saying, well, she started it about your dog
almost attacking my child. You can't keep a dog that
would attack.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
A kid for being a kid. And I can't believe
you're talking about the next time niece meets a dog.
What about next time your dog meets a kid. The
next parent won't be so understanding. Ope, they'll call animal
control and demand he be put down on the spot.
Now we can't meet for dinner like nothing happens.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
No, no, no, no, Now you can't meet for dinner like
nothing happened.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Yes exactly.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
It's like OPI is extending the olive Branch's like totally
willing to Hey, we can do something here.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
And you're just like, nah, too worried about her human child. Yeah,
my human my non hairy. I'm pissed, Yeah, talk to me.
I'm just it's just ridiculous. Uh, how much the brother
is blowing this out of proportion unacceptable way to treat
your sibling. Honestly, my response, sorry you feel that way,

(54:48):
Please let me know when you're ready to talk about it.
I'll be here, By the way, we will always be
here on Spotify, Apple and iHeart You can listen to
us basically unlimited to your heart's desire.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
We have so many podcast episodes, so go search Okay
story Time on your favorite pod platform and listen to
this podcast.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
But before we get into the end, any closing thoughts.
Brother needs a timeout, brother needs a time out. That
needs a timeout. You please don't put down your dog.
Don't do that. And I don't think the dog growling
is like is worth all this drama. I couldn't agree
more so to close it out, Obie says, I know
a lot of you think my brother is a wiener,

(55:29):
and just hearing about this one incident, I would too.
But I really think every single one of us would
come off as a wiener if someone wrote a Reddit
post asking for advice about the biggest, a whole thing
we've ever done. Everyone has their good and bad qualities.
Everyone is sometimes the chore to be around.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
And I love my brother. I don't want to fight
with him, and I'm disappointed he's determined to drag this out.
I know a lot of you wanted me to just
ignore him until he stopped acting like a jack butt
or cut him out altogether, but that's just not realistic
for me in our relationship, and it's not something that
I want. I do think my sister in law is
eventually just going to make him talk to me, so
hopefully this won't drag on for too much longer. But

(56:06):
I'm just really sad about the whole thing. I've done
all I can do. Though, my sister in law.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
And I have plans to go hiking this weekend, so
at least they're back together. I guess that's unsatisfying. Yeah,
I think like I feel like I've been edged. Yes,
this was we've been. We've edged and not had our
goot the goon of good relationships. Yeah, there's been no goon.
I feel unedged, I feel ungooned. You feel edged. I

(56:34):
feel edged and not gooned. But I got one thing
that I'll help you finish is that this episode is finished.
Oh all right, Well, sad to finish on on such
an edge, but you know that just will keep you
on the edge of your seat. Here we go. If
you love us, make sure to subscribe we love you
and see it tomorrow,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}My cousin said my necklace is “UNHOLY”… but I refuse to remove it! | Reddit Stories | EP2172