Argument Over ‘Lion King’ Stuffy Reveals Heartbreaking Story — and a Mom Who Won’t Let Her Son Grieve

The tale, posted to an anonymous forum, had Redditors deep in their feels — with many offering heartfelt advice.

While the initial story presented to readers focused on OP’s (a.k.a. the “original poster”) stepsister, many a commenter pointed out that the real issue may be the boy’s mother.

Read on to see how the whole thing played out.

The boy kicked off the post by giving some background.

“When I (16m) was a baby my dad bought me a Simba stuffy,” he explained. “My dad was really into The Lion King and it was a movie he introduced to me real early and a movie we shared a love for.”

“I used to dress as Simba for Halloween and had Simba cakes for years,” OP continued. “Simba was my favorite toy and always made me think of my dad. He died when I was 8.”

Then the boy’s mom remarried soon after.

“My mom remarried less than a year later to Nick. Nick had a baby daughter when he and my mom got married. She doesn’t see her mom so we have lived together 100% of the time since mom and Nick got married.”

While OP never considered his stepdad as a real parent to him, his new stepsister was, in the words of the boy, “obsessed with me.”

“I’m a little more mixed,” he admitted. “She can be cute or sweet or whatever but sometimes it gets on my nerves when we’re called siblings and she will call Nick ‘our dad’ and correcting her usually comes with being scolded by my mom and Nick because they said she loves me and wants to connect us more which I should appreciate.”

He also described his stepsister getting upset when he goes “to see my grandparents or my aunt or uncle and she’s left behind.”

“My grandparents and my aunt and uncle are my paternal family so my stepsister isn’t related to them and I don’t want to bring her along because I barely get to see my family anyway,” he went on to explain. “My mom has encouraged me before to bring her along and show she’s my real sister. But I don’t think of her that way and I never have even though I know she thinks of me as just her brother.”

Then came the real thing OP had entered Reddit to talk about.

“I say all of this because maybe it will be relevant here,” he wrote. “I no longer sleep with my Simba stuffy but I keep him on a shelf across from my bed so I can see him when I’m in bed and so he’s close by. I also got a clear box for him so I can still see him but he’s clean and stuff. My stepsister has wanted him for months now.”

The boy’s wishes to protect this one and only keepsake from his father were not respected.

“Mom and Nick have both taken Simba down from the shelf and out of the box to give to her and I had to take him back,” he recalled. “I asked mom and Nick to respect my no. They say I should share and my stepsister would sleep with him instead of leaving him on a shelf. They don’t care about it being something I treasure from dad.”

“So one day my stepsister was really annoying me about it and she kept begging me to let her have Simba and she’ll take good care of him and I can see him whenever I want. I told her no, I do not want her to have him, he is special to me because my dad bought him and my dad is gone. She said if ‘our dad’ bought him then we should share. I said Nick is not my dad, my dad died and he bought me Simba and I want to keep him just for me. She got upset and asked if I didn’t want her to ever have him and I said yes, I don’t want her to ever have Simba. She was devastated and my mom and Nick were furious and it got worse when she said I’d be mad if she ever had Simba again.”

OP went on to write: “I had to hide Simba away from everyone because of this, which has made me very resentful of all three, even though my stepsister is young and not really to blame. But I hate not seeing him every day.”

“My mom and Nick think I was wrong to directly address my stepsister on this,” he concluded, then asked, “AITA [am I the a–hole]?”

Of course, the boy only received support on the platform. Among the sympathetic responses was plenty of advice and observations about his family dynamic.

The highest rated comment assured OP he was not the a–hole and noted: “Your step sister has to learn that she can’t have everything that she wants. But your mom and [stepdad] are the real AHoles!! Take Simba to your dad’s family for safe keeping or guaranteed Mom and SD will give Simba to your step sister when you are not home.”

“That’s what I had to do to hide Simba,” the boy replied. “But it makes me so mad and resentful that I had to.”

He then shared the emotional cost, “I’ve had Simba since I was a baby and not having him where I can see him is so tough. I also feel like I lost dad again.”

The obvious suggestion to follow was: “Would it be possible for you to stay a while with your dad’s family? Like you tell your mom and step dad, that they have to accept your boundaries and your no means no. And if they can’t you move to your grandparents/aunt.”

“I wish, especially now,” OP said in reply. “I would love to live with my grandparents to get away from the anger I feel with my mom. But I know she wouldn’t let me go that easily.”

“What else is going on here?” Another curious Redditor asked. “How does your mother treat you outside of this situation? How does she handle your continued grief? Do you feel you have a safe space to talk to her about your feelings, your dad, etc., outside of the stepsister issues? What about him? How does he relate to you as a stepson, or does he just treat you like someone living in the house and expect you to cater to his daughter’s wants?”

“I can’t talk to my mom about my dad,” the boy said in response. “Their relationship wasn’t good for the last two years of his life. I remember tension and I remember they weren’t even in the same bedroom. Dad had his room and mom had hers. I think that was why she found it so easy to move on. Honestly they might have been separated in every sense but legally by then. I was too young to know really. I just remember it wasn’t good. And my mom doesn’t want to talk about him. She also doesn’t want to hear how much I miss dad or how I don’t want Nick to be my ‘new dad’. She even told me to my face I should grow up and make my stepsister feel loved and happy when I explained not including my stepsister with my paternal family.”

“Nick’s just my mom’s husband,” OP added. “He’s not my parent. He doesn’t really try to be although he does try to claim it for his daughter’s sake.”

These responses had Redditors up in arms, wanting to defend and protect the boy.

“Sounds like your real problem isn’t your stepsister but your mom, who isn’t allowing you to remember, recognize, or grieve your father,” noted one commenter.

“You have the right to tell them that you don’t intend to forget your father and that they need to recognize that things your father gave you are special to you, always will be, and those special things are off limits to your stepsister,” they continued to advise. “Your parents don’t have the right to ‘correct’ you when you resist being told to call Nick your father. You can say ‘I have the right to remember my father’ or ‘I have the right to grieve’.”

Elsewhere, OP said in reply to these reactions: “I have tried to talk to my mom about it before. She really only cares about what she sees as best for her and my stepsister. Like she wants things to be a certain way and she wants my stepsister to be happy and feel loved. She wouldn’t listen to me and Nick only cares about my mom and his daughter.”

When a concerned commenter suggested they could go to therapy together to work on this, the boy replied: “My mom doesn’t believe in therapy.”

What would you advise the boy to do?