I just stood up to my belligerent, entitled family and it feels amazing

Holy shit, I did it. I’ve been a people pleaser for my entire life. As part of this, I’ve been letting my family walk all over me and abuse me my entire life. Today I stood up to them and it may be the most empowering thing I’ve ever done. I’m 30 years old and I finally feel like an adult. They are the type of family that expects everyone to do everything for them while giving nothing in return, and I put up with it because I thought that if I treated them with basic human respect and dignity, they’d eventually return that. Well, today was the first time they ever really made me angry and I gave them a well deserved (and long overdue) dressing down. It’s okay to expect basic human decency from people. It’s okay to not let people treat you like shit. Holy shit I feel like I can finally breathe. My parents side of the family gave me a really hard time about moving away and said I had abandoned them (even though we’re all grown ass adults with our own lives and families and it’s a 2 hour drive to see them). <br><br>The extended family was having a potluck and one of my cousins brought a dish that was a family recipe that one of my aunts had given out at a potluck years ago. My aunt and uncle took it really seriously and thought that my cousin was trying to steal the recipe from my aunt and take credit for it. I don’t really care that much and I think it’s dumb that they’re feuding over this stupid recipe. My aunt didn’t bring her dish to the potluck but she decided to bring it up to me unsolicited and tell me that she was mad at my cousin and thought they were a terrible person, and that I’m a terrible person for not “calling them out” on their supposed thievery. I said she had no right to talk to me like that and she started to get mad at me and I doubled down and told her she was an entitled and narcissistic piece of shit that I wouldn’t tolerate anymore. She tried to walk away and I followed her and told her that she had no right to speak to anyone like that and that she desperately needed to grow up and stop being such a child. She started to cry and everyone told me I should be ashamed of myself. I took my things and left and I feel amazing.<br><br>Edit: I just got off the phone with my mom and I told her what happened. She’s really upset with me and told me that I need to call my aunt and uncle and apologize. I told her that I wasn’t going to do that and that my aunt and uncle needed to grow up and be adults. My mom told me that they’re never going to change and that I should just suck it up for the sake of the extended family. I told her that I wasn’t going to do that and that I wasn’t going to let them treat me like a child anymore. My mom started crying and telling me that I’m being selfish and need to do this to keep the family together. I told her that it’s not my job to keep the family together or fix all their problems for them. She told me that “We’re family. We’re supposed to stick together.” And I told her that her mentality was part of the problem and that her and the rest of my family needed to grow up and act like fucking adults.<br><br>Edit 2: I just got a call from my cousin asking me if I could give her a ride to a party tomorrow night. I told her no and she asked why and I told her I had better things to do than to devote my Saturday night to driving her around like her chauffeur. She started whining and I told her to stop being so fucking lazy and entitled. I hung up the phone and she immediately called me back. I told her not to call me anymore and that I’m not a taxi service. She asked me why I was being so mean and I told her I wasn’t being mean but I’m also not her fucking servant.