Young Woman Refuses to Watch Her Sister’s Kids. Is She Wrong?

I enjoy kids and everything, but I totally understand people who don’t necessarily want to watch other peoples’ children…even if they happen to be related to them…

And a young woman took to Reddit’s “Am I The A**hole?” page to ask if she’s acting inappropriately for not wanting to watch her sister’s kids.

Read on to see what happened.

AITA for refusing to babysit my sisters kids?

“I (20F) have a sister (26F) who has 6 children, all under the age of 10. She is a single mother and cares for all of her children by herself with little support from the fathers. Despite all of this, she works hard to support herself and her kids.

However, because of her need to work to provide for all of them, she cannot watch them 24/7, and often asks family members and friends to watch them for her while she is away.

Now, I don’t h**e kids or have a phobia of them or anything like that, but I do have severe anxiety around them. It’s hard to tend to kids under 10 and often makes me panic when I am hounded by them.

I have watched all 6 of her kids in the past at once despite my issues (and I knew she had a lot on her plate), but because of everything they needed and the pressure, I ended up having a panic attack that ended with me passing out. My sister and other family members are aware of my anxiety around kids and because of this, don’t ask me to babysit.

My sister is going to a wedding next weekend and is taking a few days off of work to do so. She has everything in order, however, it is a “no child” wedding. She has asked many people to watch her children, but no one can or will watch her kids. My sister visited me today and asked me if I was willing to watch them for the weekend. I told her that I was sorry, but that I couldn’t.

She started to get agitated with me and asked me why not. I reminded her about what happened last time I watched her children and about my anxiety towards them. She began to get upset and told me “that happened a year ago! I don’t even think you’re scared of them, you just don’t want to do it.”

I told her that one, I’m not scared of them, I feel overwhelmed and anxious due to their needs and behavior (I should also mention that her kids are not the most well behaved which makes them harder to control.) I also reminded her that I passed out the last time I watched them from the anxiety and suggested that she maybe just get a babysitter for the weekend.

This is where she started getting really upset and raised her voice at me, and told me “does it look like I have money for a babysitter?! that’s why I’m coming to you!!” I told her I’m sorry, but the answer was no. I also told her if money was an issue, I could help her pay for the sitter. She scoffed and told me to just forget it. She left my home without saying a word, despite me still trying to talk to her.

Later that night, she wrote a lengthy Facebook post about how “family should always be there for one another” and how “we should help each-other despite our issues.”

My mom agrees with my sister and says I should have helped her. I didn’t say no because I didn’t want to help her, I said no because I know I can’t handle it.

AITA?”

Oh, boy…let’s see what Reddit users had to say about this.

This reader said this woman has boundaries and it’s not okay for her sister to try to push them.

I agree!

Photo Credit: Reddit

Another Reddit user said that this is a health issue and it could turn out to be dangerous for the kids and the young woman if something were to happen.