Being a parent is such an incredibly full time job that it’s easy to get desperate for some help.

So much so that you stop understanding the perspective of your non-parent friends, and vice-versa.

Like in this story, where a mom wanted help so badly she couldn’t see things from her friend’s point of view.

Check out the details below.

AITAH for refusing to babysit my friend’s kid even though I was “just staying home” anyway?

I (24F) have a friend, Lauren (24F), who has a 3-year-old son.

I love the kid, but I’m not a babysitter.

Lauren knows this—I don’t really like watching kids for long periods, and I’ve never offered to babysit for her before.

And then the day of the incident came:

Last weekend, she called me last-minute, begging me to watch her son for a “few hours” because her babysitter canceled.

I told her I couldn’t because I had other plans.

She asked what I was doing, and I (stupidly) said, “Nothing much, just relaxing at home.”

She got mad and said, “If you’re just sitting at home anyway, why can’t you watch him?”

Come on, you gotta at least say you have meetings or something.

I told her that just because I’m home doesn’t mean I’m available for babysitting.

I wanted to enjoy my weekend, not be responsible for a toddler.

She got really upset, saying she thought I was a good friend and that I should want to help her out.

The fallout has been intense.

Now she’s barely speaking to me, and a couple of our mutual friends think I could’ve just done it “to be nice.”

But I don’t think I should have to rearrange my day just because she assumes I’m free.

AITAH?

Let’s check in with the comments:

You’re very literally not on the clock.

Gotta have those boundaries.

Then there was this zinger:

I’ve got a headache just thinking about it.

But this other woman might need to get some new friends.

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.