My (25M) brother (28M) is asking for a favor, but he treats his daughter like shit, so I don't really want to help.

I'm a professional photographer, and my brother's wife (28F) has asked me to take maternity photos for their third child that she's pregnant with. My brother has another daughter (8F) with another woman that he pays child support for, and my sister in law hates her and treats her terribly. The rest of my family turns a blind eye because they know that if they confront my brother about it, he will stop coming around altogether and not let anyone see his kids at all. He's very spiteful. That being said, I typically get along with him pretty well.

My wife and I want to take an honest and direct approach to this, addressing the elephant in the room immediately. I haven't been home in a few years, so I haven't had a chance until now.

If I confront my brother about his mistreating my niece, he will hold a grudge against me for years, and likely take it out on my niece. Not abuse her or anything, just not give her the love and attention she deserves. It's disgusting that he can act this way.

If I don't, my wife thinks I'm enabling him and his wife by supporting their having another child they can't afford, while they treat their older kids badly. I didn't want to bring such a heavy dilemma to such a simple request, since he's my brother and it doesn't cost me anything to take the photos. I feel I should do it anyway because that's what family does for each other.

What do I do? I've got people on both sides of this that think I should and shouldn't take the photos. Is the mistreatment of my niece relevant to this issue? Will I hurt my niece even further, and my parents in the process by driving my brother away?

Tl:dr: My brother is neglectful to his daughter, but wants me to support his wife's third pregnancy with professional portraits. I feel like agreeing to take the photos makes me guilty of sweeping the issue with my niece under the rug. What do I do?

Submitted July 03, 2019 at 03:26PM by OkHorror https://ift.tt/2Nw7yNb