Being a parent requires a lot of work and sacrifice, and sometimes, parents need support from their older children.

But what if your parents went beyond asking for help and expected you to raise their next child? Would you be happy to do it, or would you tell them no?

In the following story, a young man finds himself in this exact situation. Let’s see how it played out.

AITA for telling my parents they need to place their next kid for adoption?

My parents have four kids already. Me (17M), my younger sister (13F), younger brother (12M), and youngest sister (10F). My parents have relied on me heavily to take care of my siblings.

It started when I was still too young to do much, but they’d put them in my room if a nightmare happened, and after each sibling was 6 months old, they started sharing a room with me until they were 3.

Then, it was getting me to prepare something to eat for my younger siblings. It was also staying home with them while mom went shopping, and over time it evolved.

Kids require a lot of care.

I help with homework, I make sure they’re awake for school, I walk them to school since I don’t have a car, I feed them, and most of the time I’m the one they come to if they need help with something.

My parents will drop them off at birthday parties or to friends’ houses.

They’ll take us out for family experiences but admittedly expect me to keep an eye on my siblings.

My parents provide the food, house, and clothes. I provide the emotional stuff.

I don’t love doing it, but I got so used to it that it became second nature.

I’m still the person my youngest sister comes to if she has a nightmare or is afraid of anything during the night.

Here’s where they share the big news.

My parents learned they were pregnant again in February.

They told me and my siblings last month.

It was very much talked about like I will have the baby with me, in my room, from the jump and should learn how to independently change diapers and stuff.

I made it clear from the jump that I wasn’t raising their next kid for them.

I told them I had more responsibility to my three siblings than I should’ve ever had.

It doesn’t hurt to ask again.

But I wasn’t going to skip my own life to raise an infant from the start.

My parents were shocked.

They tried to get one of my younger siblings on board, but they said no way, they didn’t want to be responsible like me.

My parents returned to me with the topic and asked what they’re meant to do, and they never expected me to reject a sibling like this.

I said I reject child raising another one of their kids. Not a sibling.

But also, I’ll be out of the house in 7 months. I won’t be around the new sibling as much, and the relationship might not be the same.

I told them I don’t want the same relationship either. I don’t want to be a parent to another sibling.

And this is where things take a turn for the worse.

They made it pretty clear they don’t want to do the actual child raising, and they’re living a nightmare over this.

When the topic came up during the last week, I told them they need to place the baby for adoption since they won’t have a good childhood with nobody wanting to raise them.

I told my parents it would be the kindest thing to do if they refuse to raise the baby themselves.

My parents accused me of treating adoption flippantly, and they were sorta outraged I would rather they place the baby for adoption than for me to step up and raise this one too.

AITA?

Wow! That’s a lot of responsibility to put on your child.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit had to say about these parents.

This is excellent advice!

Here’s more great advice.

This person is afraid they will put the responsibility on one of their other kids.

This comment explains why the parents are bad people.

Sure, someone needs to care for the baby, but this is not a job for a teenager.

The parents need to step up.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.