Caring for an elderly parent can be both physically and emotionally exhausting.

This elderly woman takes care of her 94-year-old mother, who has dementia.

One night, her mother woke her at 1:30 am, asking for a hot fudge sundae.

Would making the hot fudge sundae be the right thing to do, or is saying “no” the right decision?

Check out the story below.

AITA for refusing to make my demented mother a hot fudge sundae at 1:30 AM when she asked for it and woke me up?

I (67F) am my mother’s caregiver (94 yrs old).

She gets up at night to use the bathroom many times, and I never get any sleep.

This woman takes care of her demented mother full-time.

Taking care of her is a full-time job.

Everyone assumes it is easy.

I take her to every appointment, to the bathroom, lift her everywhere.

It is a lot.

Her mother asked for a hot fudge sundae in the middle of the night.

Last night at 1:30 in the morning, she randomly woke me up asking me to make her a hot fudge sundae.

I yelled back that it was 1:30, and to go to bed.

She asked me again and I yelled at her, probably rudely.

I told her to go to bed and that her request was ridiculous given the time of the day.

She persisted.

Her nephew in the other room got up and made her one.

My nephew in the other room woke up.

She made her the sundae which she said she loved, and thanked him.

She said she does not think she will get to have many of them in her life given her age and health.

My nephews, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my niece-in-law all admonished me for not making her the sundae.

Now, everyone’s saying she’s mean for not giving in to her mother’s request.

They said I was cruel and mean.

In my mind, it was an insane request, and now, she is going to ask for it every night.

She has no concept of time of day, and I am her sole caregiver.

AITA?

That was a pretty crazy middle of the night request.

Let’s see what others have to say about this on Reddit.

This person shares a similar experience.

This person thinks she’s at a breaking point.

They can be on sundae duty, says this person.

Here’s some sound advice from this person.

Finally, short and straightforward.

Sometimes, the people who care the most are judged the worst.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.