As a teacher and mother, being home during a break from school doesn’t mean being available during the break.

When one entitled neighbor started treating her like an on-call nanny for her poorly behaved kids, one hardworking mom decided to put her foot down and stand up to the disrespect.

Read on for the full story!

AITA for telling my neighbor I’m not her babysitter over the summer.

I (38F) have a neighbor — we’ll call her Sara (38F).

I’m married with 2 girls (8 & 11), she has 2 boys (8 & 12).

Sara is married, but her husband travels a lot for work and she works from home.

I am a teacher, so I have school breaks and summers “off.”

Living in such close quarters, these two families cross paths a lot.

Over winter break, Sara’s kids kept coming over to see if my kids could play. (Play means they have been sent over because they’re annoying mom and she’s trying to work.)

The kids were friends when they were younger, but as they got older, they don’t really have much in common and they’ve drifted apart.

Her kids go to a parochial school and my kids go to public school, so they don’t even have teachers or classmates in common.

They don’t have a ton in common anymore, and when they do play, Sara’s kids fight — A LOT. (With each other and with my kids.)

Her neighbor often guilt trips her into helping.

One day over winter break, the younger one came to the door to see if my kids could play, and I told him they didn’t want to play right now.

Sara sent me a text saying that she was on a work call and she could really use some time with the boys out of the house.

I caved and told my girls to just try and find something they could do together.

But the boys weren’t behaving themselves.

Ten minutes later, my oldest came upstairs crying, saying that one of the boys made a nasty comment about how boring our house was and that it was dumb that I wouldn’t let him play Xbox.

I told the boys if they were bored, they were more than welcome to leave.

Her neighbor doesn’t really seem to respect her time.

Now it’s almost spring break, and Sara just asked if I could watch the boys two days because she has 2 busy work days and I’m “off work.”

I told her no because we would be on vacation in Florida visiting family.

She said OK and “jokingly” said, “I guess I’ll just hit you up in the summer.”

So she lays down the law.

I replied and said that I will NOT be babysitting her kids over the summer. (True emergencies—sure.)

I said, “I’m sorry, but just because I’m not AT school during the summer does not mean that I am your free childcare.”

Yes, I don’t physically go to work over the summer, but I take online classes for my master’s and I teach online summer school. Meaning — I am also working from home.

Her neighbor doesn’t react well.

She blew up at me and told me I should help her because she’s alone a lot, and now that the kids are older, it’s harder to keep them entertained all day.

I told her that I didn’t care if the kids played together outside during the summer, but I was not going to be a caretaker or responsible for her kids unless she was going to compensate me.

Plus, the kids don’t even really enjoy hanging out with each other.

I tried explaining to her that the kids do not get along the way they used to.

My kids don’t fight with each other the way her kids fight with each other, and my kids don’t really want them to be at our house all the time.

Now she’s ticked and not speaking to me, and her oldest told my oldest that I’m not a good person because I won’t help my neighbor.

AITA because I won’t watch her kids over the summer?

It’s a home, not a daycare!

What did Reddit have to say?

This entitled neighbor sure wouldn’t like it if the tables were turned.

This mother’s reasoning to her neighbor was perfectly logical.

This neighbor is simply using this family for their time and resources.

Maybe it’s time to cut this neighbor off altogether.

Free time does not equal free labor.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.