Often, people who don’t have kids fall into the trap of becoming the designated babysitter.

In this case, a man was very satisfied with his life, but his sister started taking his free babysitting of her 3 kids for granted.

So he decided to stop doing her this favor and she felt very offended.

Is he in the wrong?

Let’s analyze the situation.

AITA for not babysitting my sisters kids anymore?

I (27 year old male) made some accidental good financial decisions years ago that today put me in a position where I can do mostly what I love – mess with all kinds of electronics, play video games a lot etc.

I am a huge nerd.

I own a small electronics/computer shop where I fix customer’s devices etc, also sell general computer stuff and other small electronics.

I live in the same building.

I don’t spend all my time in the shop, I have 2 workers who work in shifts and I work when I feel like it or when they ask for help.

I also replace them when they need a vacation or sick days.

This sounds like an awesome arrangement! But someone decided his life was too easy.

I have a sister, Jane (34, female) and she has 3 kids, Mary (14, female), Julia (6, female), and Jack (4, male) and as I am the only one with basically “unlimited free time to watch the younger kids.”.

Mary doesn’t need to be watched anymore, but she often hangs out in my shop either way.

I do it every time the kids are sick or my sister is on a business trip for her work, and after the COVID, kids are sent home for every tiny cough and sneeze…

This means he was always there for his sister when she needed it.

Well, my grandmother had her 80th birthday and everyone was invited, relatives I don’t remember ever seeing before.

My sister and I were sitting close to each other and suddenly one old lady (who was maybe my grandmother’s cousin or something) started to ask everyone what they do and I told her that I run a small business.

My sister said, out of nowhere: “Yeah, by running a business he means being very lazy and sleeping until noon, sometimes chills out in the store and plays video games or watches movies all day while some of us had to work hard for their success!”

That was very rude.

While this is all technically true, while she studied her whole life, I went to trade school and got lucky with a few business decisions.

I felt kind of hurt that she forgot, that for her to get all that education, others had to watch her kids, so I said: “Oh, don’t forget that I am also full time free babysitter, but I decided to quit and focus on being lazy!”

She did not say anything more, and did not take me seriously either as a week later I got a phone call in the morning that Jack threw up at night a few times, she would bring him to my place.

I said: “Don’t you forget that I quit as I am way too lazy to watch the kids” and ended the call, went back to bed.

When I woke up later there were multiple messages from my sister telling me that I am a selfish jerk and I act like I am the center of the world.

I replied politely: “Sorry you feel that way”.

She expects him to babysit her kids and take her rude comments without protest.

Later my mother called and told me, that I put my sister in a really tough position as she (mom) can’t take days off from the hospital on such short notice either.

Now Jane has nobody to watch the kids!

AITA?

Nobody should feel obligated to watch anybody else’s kids.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this situation.

A reader shares their thoughts.

This commenter shares their opinion.

Another reader thinks the sister is in the wrong.

This commenter hit the nail in the head.

Another reader chimes in.

I agree.

For their relationship to work, things will need to change.

His sister needs to start appreciating what he does.

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.