To preface this, it's the night of Thanksgiving. My sister is recovering from pancreatitis and developed diabetes due to the illness, so she was checking her blood sugar with a glucose meter. Everyone else around the table decided they wanted to check their levels to compare. My older sister decided she wanted to test her kids so she went to the eldest one, we'll call him Zack (13) and he was terrified. 

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All the women in the family then had him cornered, grabbing at him, and trying to force the needle on him. Zack was shaking, crying, pushing them away, and screaming for them to stop the entire time. Just a complete meltdown. He is deathly afraid of needles &amp; squeamish about blood. This went on for a little less than an hour.

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I love my nephew a lot. I've known him his entire life and watched him grow up to the teenager he is today. It's VERY apparent that he has undiagnosed anxiety and more than likely falls under the autism spectrum. I'm diagnosed with autism and anxiety, but I also studied psychology for many years, so I would know what an anxiety attack looks like. His mom pulled him aside and in earshot kept telling Zack: "You're crazy. You have a little bit of crazy in you. You need to stop acting insane and just try it." 

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… That was the final straw for me and I was getting into my protective uncle mode. I had to compose myself because I was pissed and said "Let's all back off Zack. He's had enough." 

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His mother stormed at me and said, "OK, let's make this clear. You are NOT the parent and you can't tell me how to parent my child." Which, alright, fair. I'm not the parent and never claimed to be. I didn't want to escalate the situation but I said, "You're right, I'm not his parent but I care about Zack and he's clearly having an anxiety attack so I feel like we should leave him alone. He's been crying and screaming for an hour. I'm sorry that I offended you and I'm not trying to overstep my boundaries, but enough is enough." 

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She just scoffed and said, "He's not having an anxiety attack. He just needs to face his fear. Also, it hasn't been an hour... that's an hyperbole. Do you even know what a hyperbole is?" Yes, I do. It started at 7:50pm and it was almost 9pm... but I digress. I eventually felt obligated to give in and apologize but she kept ranting about how I needed to stay out of it.

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The problem is, he's at an impressionable age and there is a fine line between teaching your kid to face his fears and teaching consent/trust. I felt like the family was handling the situation in an unnecessarily stressful way. His parents don't believe in mental health and this kid is already going through a lot of pressure as is going through puberty, high school and college courses at the same time, and advanced piano... just give the damn kid a break for the holidays. 

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Anyway, am I in the wrong? I love my sister and we've pretty much made up at this point but it still bothers me.