Anika, 28, has always been someone her friends and family could count on for sound advice. Whether it was relationship troubles, career dilemmas, or just the daily struggles of life, Anika was there to listen and guide. But she never imagined that one day, she\u2019d be the one seeking advice, grappling with a situation that shook her to the core. Anika sent her message to us.Anika began her letter, saying,I never thought I\u2019d find myself in such a situation, but I\u2019m writing this because I\u2019m feeling lost and conflicted. I recently discovered something about my family that has been causing me sleepless nights, and I need to share it to understand if I\u2019m overreacting or if my feelings are justified. I come from a very conservative family. My parents raised me and my younger brother in a household where traditional values were the foundation of everything. Growing up,\n
I was always taught that a girl\u2019s role is to support her family, be a good wife, and take care of the household. I accepted this because it was all I knew, and when I married my husband, Rohan, I stepped into that role without question. My parents were proud of me for finding a good man, and they were happy that I had a stable home with him. My father would often say, \u2019Rohan will take care of you now; you don\u2019t have to worry about anything.\u2019 And I believed it.\u201d She always believed that she and her brother would share equal inheritance from their parents.\u201d\n
Life with Rohan has been good, but like everyone else, we have our own financial struggles. We both work hard to maintain our household, and while we\u2019re not wealthy, we\u2019ve managed to get by without needing much help from anyone. I never expected any kind of inheritance from my parents, as I was under the impression that whatever they had would be shared equally between my brother and me. But that belief was shattered recently when I accidentally came across their will.\u201d Anika continued, \u201cI was visiting my parents when I found the will in a drawer. I wasn\u2019t snooping; I was simply looking for some old documents my mother asked me to retrieve. When I saw the will, I was curious and thought nothing of reading it. After all, they are my parents, and I had always assumed that everything they had would be divided fairly between my brother and me. But when I read the document, my heart sank.\u201d Anika\u2019s parents had different plans about it.\u201dMy parents had decided to leave everything\u2014our family home, the land, the savings, and even some precious heirlooms\u2014to my brother.\n
Not a single thing was mentioned to me. I first thought there must be a mistake, but they had written that my brother, being the son, would inherit everything because \u2018he will need to support his future family and provide for them.\u2019 It went on to say that since I\u2019m married and my husband provides for me, I don\u2019t need any inheritance. They believed that my brother, as a man, deserved it all because he would one day have a family to care for. The will also mentioned that as a daughter, my duty was to my husband\u2019s family now, not my own.\u201d Anika explained, \u201cI was in shock.\n
My parents have always been loving and supportive, but this made me feel like I was less important, simply because I\u2019m a woman. They didn\u2019t even discuss this with me, and it hurt more than I can express. When I confronted them about it, they didn\u2019t understand why I was upset. My mother said, \u2018But you\u2019re married, Anika. You have Rohan to take care of you. Your brother needs this to start his own life when he marries. It\u2019s how things are done in our culture.\u2019 My father added, \u2018You should be happy for your brother; he needs this more than you do.’\u201d Anika thinks about whether she should fight or leave it.\u201dI\u2019m struggling with this, Anika wrote, \u201cbecause it feels like my worth to my parents is tied to the fact that I\u2019m a woman and nothing more. They see me as someone who no longer belongs to their family, just because I\u2019m married.\n
It\u2019s as if all the years I spent being their daughter, their support, and their pride, mean nothing now that I have a husband. I can\u2019t help but feel betrayed and heartbroken. I\u2019ve always done everything they asked of me, but now I wonder if they ever saw me as an equal to my brother.\u201d \u201cNow, I\u2019m torn between wanting to fight for what I believe is rightfully mine and simply accepting their decision, as they\u2019ve clearly made up their minds. I don\u2019t want to create a rift in my family, but I also can\u2019t ignore the pain this has caused me. What should I do?\u201d Here is what Anika can do in her case.Anika, we understand how difficult and emotionally charged your situation is. Discovering that your parents have chosen to exclude you from their inheritance because of your gender must feel deeply unfair and hurtful. Here are some tips that might help you navigate this difficult time:\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My Parents Denied Me My Inheritance Because I\u2019m a Girl \u2014 Now I\u2019m Ready to Fight Anika, 28, has always been someone her friends and family could count on for sound advice. Whether it was relationship troubles, career dilemmas, or just the daily struggles of life, Anika was there to listen and guide. But she\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":88125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-story"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/6.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88126,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88113\/revisions\/88126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}