Going on vacation with kids isn’t exactly a relaxing vacation.
In today’s story, one dad is going on a family vacation with all of his kids.
Some of the kids are now adults, and some of the kids still need someone to watch them.
He expects his adult kids to babysit a couple nights of the vacation, but he didn’t tell them that until just weeks before they were scheduled to leave.
Now his daughter is upset.
Let’s see how the story plays out…
AITA for expecting my adult children to babysit while on vacation?
Next month, my family and I are going on a 10 night vacation to the Caribbean.
There are 10 of us altogether.
Myself, my eldest son (25) and his girlfriend, my eldest daughter (21) and her boyfriend, my three youngest kids (14M, 13F, 10M), my girlfriend and her daughter (5).
I’m paying for all the main expenses of the trip (minus the flights for my son, his girlfriend, and my daughter’s boyfriend).
He was talking about the vacation plans with his kids.
Recently, we were discussing itinerary of the vacation.
I’ve told the kids that half the nights would be family nights, but two nights of the vacation my adult kids and their partners can go and do their own thing.
I also told them that they would be babysitting two of the nights as well, so my girlfriend and I can spend some time together away from the kids.
There is specifically a day of the vacation I plan for the older kids to watch their siblings all day/night because I have plans for me and my girlfriend.
His daughter is upset about being expected to babysit.
My daughter wasn’t very happy when I mentioned this.
She accused me of being manipulative because I didn’t mention the babysitting request until now.
I didn’t really think to mention it sooner because I didn’t think it would be an issue and thought it would probably be expected.
My daughter says she doesn’t mind babysitting but doesn’t like feeling like she’s been forced into it because I paid for her vacation.
There was another family vacation where his daughter did a lot of babysitting.
She also brought up our last family vacation out the country back in 2019 (it was just me and the five kids) and claims she spent most the vacation looking after her little siblings, and is just worried the same thing will happen again.
I won’t lie, she was very helpful during that last vacation as I was a single parent with 3 little kids.
I told her her things are different now, so it won’t be like that last vacation.
Am I being a jerk?
To me it seems fair that the older kids get some time to spend away with their partners and we get the same.
Especially as I am bankrolling their vacation.
It would’ve been best to mention the babysitting request up front.
Perhaps he could pay his older kids to babysit since that wasn’t originally a condition of the vacation.
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…
This reader thinks he is “sneaky.”
Deep down, he probably knew his kids didn’t want to babysit.
This reader isn’t surprise his daughter doesn’t trust him.
The problem is that he expected his kids to be okay with babysitting.
Lack of communication caused this problem.
He should just hire a babysitter and let his kids enjoy their vacation.
That way everyone would be happy.
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.