'My 5-year-old sister is banned from my wedding until she sees psychologist'

A woman has expressed concern that her younger sister may not behave appropriately at her upcoming wedding.

She took to Reddit to share her predicament, explaining that her fiance proposed six months ago and they are now in the throes of wedding planning.

The woman has three younger siblings aged 9, 7, and the youngest, Evie, is just 5 years old. She began her post by expressing her deep love for her siblings.

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The couple looks after the children every day after school, and she believes her fiance has a wonderful rapport with them, which seems to be reciprocated. However, when they shared their engagement news with the children, the two older ones were thrilled, but little Evie was livid.

Her reason for being upset was quite unexpected.

She explained: "She started crying and hitting me because she wanted to marry him, and if I marry him, she can't."

"She refused to speak to me for almost a week, and now she's mostly ok, but she gets mad at me and starts crying and hitting me any time she sees me kiss him."

Evie was slated to be a flower girl at the wedding, but now the couple fears she might not be able to sit through the ceremony without breaking down. The woman discussed her concerns with their father, suggesting that Evie should see a child psychologist before attending the ceremony, which is still a few months away in September.

However, he disagreed, saying: "He's saying she doesn't need therapy, she's just a 5 year old with a crush on my fiance, I'm overreacting, and she won't forgive me if I exclude her from the wedding."

She detailed that Evie resorts to hitting, kicking, punching and even biting hard enough to draw blood. They've attempted various disciplinary measures such as time-outs, confiscating toys, and even threatening that her fiance will stop visiting if she continues this behavior.

However, nothing seems to work. In the comments section, some users speculated about potential issues at home.

One user commented: "Obviously there's more at play here than this story, but regardless you should not be enabling anything that might derail your wedding."

"In the meantime, educate yourself on 'parentification.' It's good that your fiance is all over your siblings and supportive of you, but this dynamic is sooner or later going to screw up your relationship with him if left to fester."

Parentification refers to a situation where a child assumes the supportive, parental role in a family, which can become inappropriate and burdensome.

Another user suggested: "She DOES need therapy, but clearly her bad dad isn't going to take her. If you can, see if he'd pay for sessions if YOU take her. You're already doing great at giving her time-outs and not playing with her after she hits."