When a friend asked for help with her challenging kids while she dealt with a court case, the plan seemed manageable.

But once the kids were there, chaos ensued, leaving the babysitter overwhelmed and the house in disarray.

Now, the friend is questioning why things fell apart.

Read on for the story.

AITA for essentially giving up watching my friend’s kids?

Over a month ago, my friend L (F, 33) asked me (F, 24) to watch her kids for 2 weeks while she handles a court case several states away.

At the time, the kids were staying with their father for the month of July.

When L asked me to do this favor for her, she explained that the kids (M, 13 and F, 13, not twins) know what needs done around the house and that I would just be observing them, mostly.

I agreed because they only live about 30 mins away and I was under the impression I would still be able to go to work and do most things normally.

Totally, what could go wrong?

Then, the kids got back from their dad’s.

I’ll spare most of the details but the kids and their dad were essentially missing, staying across town from where they said they’d be, and the cops had to be called in order for L to get the kids back.

Then, the boy told the cops he was going to run away as soon as they were back with their mom on the grounds L was abusive.

As a result of this, a DCFS case was opened, but quickly closed after an inspection of L’s home because she had nothing to hide.

Fast forward to the week before I’m supposed to watch the kids. L fills me in on everything that happened and warns me that the kids may be a flight risk and that she doesn’t trust them to be alone for any amount of time.

Uhh, this isn’t comforting.

As a result of this, she tells me I have to leave work 2 hours early every day so that I can be home when they get back from school.

This isn’t ideal because right now is peak season at work, but I get it covered so that I can leave an hour early from work.

The kids whined and fought with me whenever asked to do ANYTHING; chores, getting them to shower, you name it, they wanted to fight.

They also would try to fake being sick to get out of going to school and constantly fight with each other.

I had never been so stressed in my life. It’s hard to pick your battles when it’s never-ending. I admit the house was a mess when the 2 weeks was over. I got so tired of constantly fighting the kids I pretty much gave up.

Holy hell.

L’s court case was dismissed, she was free to go after the first week but she got a non-refundable, non-transferable flight so she stayed the rest of her time with her new boyfriend.

I offered to pay for a return flight home because I was genuinely losing my mind.

L called me when she returned home and she was upset about the state of the house, saying it looked like the kids had not picked up after themselves the whole 2 weeks.

I apologized and said that I tried to pick my battles but I guess I didn’t pick enough of them.

Then she gets really upset and says she “wants to understand how the kids were so bad that I wanted to quit” because “they’ve never acted like this for a babysitter before.”

Um, have you met them?

I’m not sure if she was upset at me or frustrated with the kids, but it felt like I was the one getting chewed out.

The whole reason I agreed to to this for L is because she is new to the area and has no one else to impose upon in this way.

Despite trying to keep the peace, the stress of managing unruly kids and a messy house led to a less-than-perfect outcome, leaving her feeling unjustly blamed.

Reddit says don’t sweat it. The friend is way in the wrong here.

She’s class-less, according to this one.

This person has similar thoughts.

Literally everyone agrees.

It turns out that taking on a task under these conditions was more than just a favor—it was a full-blown trial.

The friend was expecting way too much.

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.