We don’t get to choose how many siblings we have, so when you end up with nine, things can get pretty crazy.
For this young woman, her parents expect her to watch her nine younger siblings while they’re out of the country. She’s refusing, and it’s causing serious issues.
Let’s hear what happened…
AITA for telling my parents I did not want to take care of my 9 younger siblings while they leave to Austria?
I (19, female) have many, many younger siblings. My parents have 10 children total, me being the oldest.
Most of my life I have had to take responsibility and help them, and sometimes it got unmanageable.
I guess you could say I have oldest daughter syndrome. But overall, I love my siblings, and for the older ones, they can take care of themselves for the most part.
But something came up…
My parents don’t normally leave the country, but lately a relative of my dad’s died and they have to go back to Austria soon to attend the funeral and other things like that.
Neither me nor my siblings knew them well so we are not attending, plus travel costs.
Things came to conflict when my parents told me that my closest brother (16) and I would be taking care of my siblings alone. All of them.
We suggested anything. Hiring someone, bringing in a friend of my parents’, anything really. But they turned it down. They are solitary and don’t like the idea.
She tried to set boundaries…
I told my parents that I was in university and my brother was in highschool and we have a large amount of responsibilities we need to meet right now, especially with the end of the school year.
I was quite stern when I told them this, which may have been very rude of me.
I was very staunch in the fact that I would *not* be taking care of them because it would cause unnecessary strain on me I was unprepared for.
While it is not absolutely impossible, I know I will be doing the majority of the work since I am the oldest while also having my own things like university.
By the end of the week when my parents come back I probably will be completely burnt out and exhausted.
She has some doubts, though…
We have no relatives in this country or any other family members, and are hesitant to bring friends into the house. I really don’t know what to say.
I feel like I’m overreacting and perhaps being selfish for not wanting to care for my siblings especially since it’s an emergency and just a week. AITA?
Let’s dive into the comments…
This user thinks there’s a simple solution.
Another commenter agrees and think mom staying home would be fine.
Other commenters warned of parentification.
Overall, everyone agreed that the kids are the parents responsibility!
The comments are right, it’s not her responsibility!
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.