TwistedSifter

Someone Volunteered Her To Watch Her Neighbor’s Kids, But She Say It’s Not Her Responsibility

Source: Reddit/Unsplash/@little_klein

My lord…are people pushy these days, or what?

You better believe that they are!

And the woman who wrote this story on Reddit got put into a pretty uncomfortable situation.

Was she wrong for how she reacted?

Check out her story and see what you think.

AITA For Not Watching My Neighbor’s Kids?

“My neighbor asked this morning for people to watch her kids (7 and 9) this week. It is spring break, so they are out of school.

She had a sitter lined up but things fell through at the last second, and she cannot take time off work all week at the last second without being fired.

A number of our neighbors agreed to watch them for certain periods of time, ranging from a few hours to a couple of full days, so it seems like she’s mostly covered but just has Friday afternoon left to go.

My immediate next door neighbor, a retiree who is watching the kids today, chimed in that I work from home on Fridays. You should ask her to watch them.”

Gee, thanks a lot…

She tagged me in the comment, and then the mom replied by tagging me again and saying that would be great and she’d really appreciate it.

I said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t watch them.” It quickly turned into the Inquisition–Why not? Am I going into the office that day? If I’m going to be home, what’s the problem? If my house isn’t child proofed, I can watch them at hers, so what’s the problem?

Let’s break it down…

Firstly, I don’t want to. It isn’t just that I know nothing about kids (which I don’t!) but also I am actively uncomfortable around them. More importantly, I will be in my home office actually working.

I can’t supervise them. I don’t know how much active supervision 7 and 9 year olds need, but my house is full of expensive things. I also have zero child proofing and couldn’t even tell you for sure where all my chemicals and rat poison are kept.

This doesn’t sound like a good idea.

I have an enormous dog who is clumsy, excitable, and has never been around kids except from a distance on walks. And I can’t just watch them at her house instead, because I NEED to be in my home office working.

It isn’t the kind of job I can easily do on a laptop screen. (I use a 45-inch monitor at home.)

I explained this all briefly in response to questions (“My house is the opposite of child proofed”; “I can’t go to her house because my job requires the set up I have in my home office”). I didn’t mention the I don’t like kids part. The neighbors are all piling on and commenting negatively.

These people need to mind their own business.

Saying it’s “just excuses,” that if they worked from home / wouldn’t be at Disney World / didn’t have a softball game / whatever they’d absolutely watch her kids for her.

I am tempted to comment “What’s stopping you from taking her kids with you to your softball game, if it matters that much to you?” but I haven’t.

I’m not going to watch her kids either way, but I need a sanity check here.

Am I really that big of an ******* for not stepping up and watching a neighbor’s kids for a few hours, or have I just accidentally moved into a hive of mama bears who all have the same mass delusion?”

Check out how people reacted to this story.

One person said she’s NTA.

Another Reddit user agreed.

This person shared their thoughts.

Another individual said she doesn’t have to explain herself.

And this Reddit user said the neighbor is the ******* in this story.

Rule of the day: don’t ever volunteer ANYONE for ANYTHING.

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.

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