My [25M] sister [15F] broke down emotionally because dad [52M] failed her (again). How can we help her?

Dad has always been absent. I kinda made my peace with that when I was around my sister's age (when they had been divorced for about 3 years) and haven't really been affected by his lack of presence ever since.

When she was a little girl dad would come like 1 a month or something like that and take my sister out for an afternoon and then pretty much disappear until the next time. He never did anything with me and I was fine with that.

While at this point I don't care about dad at all, my sister is still pretty fixated with him. She's frequently sad when he doesn't show up or changes plans unexpectedly. To be honest, their IRL interactions are basically going out every few weeks and him giving her presents during some holidays and her birthday.

They were supposed to go out on Friday night and he didn't show up with no explanation. I was there most of the afternoon and she spent a good while getting ready and seemed excited but gradually became sadder as it became obvious that he wasn't going to show up. Then she went to her room and cried under the covers.

I tried to console her but she was crying uncontrollably. Mom was saying she was tired of dad being an asshole bailing out on her like that and I agreed. My sister texted dad on the weekend and he said he was going to see her over the course of this week.

This situation has happened several times, though she hadn't had this severe a breakdown before. It breaks my heart to see her try to connect with dad like dad for him to just be him about it and totally disappoint her. It hurts much more to watch than it ever hurt to live through that.

What can I do to help my sister? How can I support her?

tl;dr: Dad is absent and frequently disappoints my sister. He did it one more time last Friday and she cried her heart out to sleep. How can I support her?

Submitted November 26, 2018 at 09:09AM by EconomyBobcat9 https://ift.tt/2zwnLIu