Blended families are a beautiful thing, and also complicated.

This stepmom went to Reddit to share her woes. Read her story here…

I (31f) am married to James (35m) and we have a 3.5 year old son together. James also has two children Grace (13f) and Luke (14m) with his ex-wife, Sharon (36f).

Sharon and James have been divorced for 12 years and ever since Sharon has been in a string of relationships and had four additional children who are ages 10 and under.

She is currently married and has three stepchildren who are 7 and under.

This woman’s husband has asked her to babysit his ex wife’s stepkids.

James has always been willing to help Sharon out if needed so the kids can see them getting along and so they know he always does his best for them and their mom.

But now he wants me to go a step further than he ever has and he wants me to babysit all of Sharon’s kids since I’m a SAHM technically, but I do run my own online business to earn money and am able to do that around everything else in my life.

Her stepdaughter is worried about her mother struggling to take care of the kids, so she asked her dad to help.

He said Sharon is struggling to find childcare for all the children she has and her husband is a bit of a deadbeat. I found out after that Grace asked her dad to help out because she was worried about her mom.

I told James that was too much for me. He said he would help where he could and I wouldn’t need to worry about the money side because he would take care of it. I told him that’s a lot though and honestly too overwhelming for me. He was frustrated with me and I told him I didn’t appreciate the pressure he was putting on me.

Later Sharon calls and tells me she wants to start dropping off the kids after Christmas. I told her I hadn’t agreed. She told me James had told her I would do it.

She then told me that I should be willing to help out and it would win the kids over (Grace and Luke) to me and maybe even to my son (their half brother).

The woman was upset that her husband had gone against what she had said.

I told James he had no right to promise anything on my behalf. He told me he believed I would be on board and he was surprised I was so against it when I never had a problem with him helping.

Then he asked me to give me a reason that couldn’t be helped with getting someone in to help me take care of the kids.

I told him he can just pay for people then if he’s so determined but I won’t be babysitting.

I also told him we need marriage counseling because of this.

Outside of the ask being a lot for one person to handle, the woman had other emotional reasons for saying no.

Also, and this might be meaningless but I feel I should confess it here.

Another reason I am unwilling, even if it wasn’t so much hard work, is the fact Grace and Luke have never shown an interest in my son.

But their half siblings from their mom and step siblings from her? It’s totally different.

I think it’s because they consider all of them, even the steps, their mom’s kids. But with my son, he’s mine and not as much their dad’s.

The stepchildren are not keen on their stepparents.

They are not fond of me or of their mom’s husband.

It’s something I have been working on. But I admit the idea of having all the kids and as my son gets a bit older, him watching his two siblings treat their other siblings so much better makes me say no anyway.

Anyway, Sharon is calling me a jerk and saying I am not thinking of my stepkids.

James thinks I should have been willing to work with him to figure out a compromise.

AITA?

Readers of this story unanimously agreed that the writer is not being unreasonable.

One person said it was not grounds for counseling, but grounds for divorce.

Another reader was upset that the woman was being called a stay at home mother despite being someone who owns a business and works from home.

This person called it flat out not feasible.

If her husband wants to play the hero so bad, maybe he should be the one to babysit 10 children.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.