There’s nothing quite like an unexpected 3 a.m. knock at the door to throw your world into chaos.

But what would you do if that knock came from a desperate neighbor in labor, asking you to take their kids at a moment’s notice?

Would you step up and help despite your own challenges?

Or would you refuse because it made you feel uncomfortable?

In the following story, a young mother finds herself facing this exact dilemma.

Here’s how it went down.

AITA for refusing to look after my neighbours kids in an medical emergency.

I (F26) live in a block of new-build apartments.

Everyone moved in a year ago, so we’re all getting familiar with our neighbours.

There are quite a few families on my landing, and we have a shared courtyard where the kids play in the summer, so we can chat while the kids are playing.

We’ve done favors for each other in the past, like formula milk and normal kids’ stuff.

Mainly, I give it out, to be honest.

But I try not to get too friendly. I have two kids myself, a 2-year-old and an 11-month-old.

I’m currently solo parenting as my husband has gone away for a few days to spend time with his family and friends.

Sound asleep, she got an unexpected knock at her door.

There’s a mum group chat of the mums in the building who swap kids around and babysit each other’s kids for a few hours.

They rotate.

I’m just a silent watcher, to be honest.

I don’t participate, and it’s not something I’m comfortable with.

My kids can’t even communicate properly.

Last night, around 3 a.m., I got a knock on the door.

My kids and I were fast asleep.

I tried to ignore it because 1. I’m home alone, 2. I wasn’t expecting company, and 3. It’s 3 a.m.!

Anyways after they wouldn’t stop and my kids were starting to wake up I look through the peephole and notice it’s my neighbour.

I open the door, and it’s her and her boyfriend and 2 kids, she’s 9 months pregnant, clearly in labour, they’ve got their hospital bags.

They asked me if I could take the kids until her sister arrived in an hour.

She politely refused, and things went downhill.

I said I’m sorry, but no.

I don’t want to be liable if anything were to happen to her kids under my care, and I don’t want to risk waking mine up.

I feel like you need to plan ahead and not start knocking on doors, hoping someone takes your kids in.

I’ve already got my hands full with my two, and there’s no way I’m having another two running around my house at 3 in the morning.

They are 1 and 4, and I know they aren’t just going to sit and watch tv quietly.

They called me evil and rude, and the bf got onto me, saying what kind of mother watches another struggle?

I feel like if my husband was around, he wouldn’t speak to me like that.

AITA?

It’s easy to see both sides of this story, but it is something you should’ve planned for ahead of time.

Let’s see what advice the readers over at Reddit have to offer.

It’s also not like her “emergency” wasn’t to be expected.

This is something most parents would agree with.

It is kind, but not everyone wants to take on the responsibility of caring for someone else’s kids.

As this person points out, the request was a bit unreasonable.

The parents should’ve planned better.

A better option would be to have the sister pick them up from the hospital instead.

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.