Caring for family members with special needs can be a complicated responsibility.

Would you be willing to step up and help, or would you refuse and instead encourage the family member to be more independent?

This woman has a sister-in-law with a cognitive disorder.

Her SIL has never been taught independent living skills, so now she and her husband face the expectation of becoming her future guardians.

Check out the full story below for all the details.

AITA for not entertaining the thought of being my SILs guardian?

My sister-in-law has special needs.

She is 35 and still lives at home.

She has never been taught independent living. This includes driving, having a job, etc.

This woman thinks her sister-in-law is capable of living independently.

She absolutely has the mental capacity to do all of those things.

She has never been allowed any type of community assistance.

She has zero physical disabilities. She has a cognitive disorder from an incident as a baby.

She lasted one day in a job program before my MIL pulled her because she “was yelled at.”

She has seen adults with far more disabilities than her SIL who know how to live on their own.

I have worked in home health care for almost 10 years.

I have seen adult independent living on a daily basis for clients with far more disabilities than my SIL has.

It is very frustrating for me to see her be so sheltered.

My in-laws will not even leave her home alone for more than the time it takes to run 10 minutes down the road and back.

She and her husband assume that they will be her guardians in the future.

My husband and I know it is assumed that we will be her guardians once something happens to my mother and father-in-law.

We don’t know how to approach this.

We partly feel like jerks rejecting the idea, but the other part of us feels like it isn’t right.

She also fears that her kids might be the ones to take care of her in the future.

In my opinion, she should be allowed to have an independent life. It is being taken from her because my mother-in-law thrives off of the control.

I also fear that the responsibility would fall onto my kids if or when something happens to my husband and me.

AITA?

Should she encourage her sister-in-law to be more independent?

Let’s check out the comments of other people on Reddit to this story.

This person makes a valid point.

This person gives their honest opinion.

Here’s some sound advice from this user.

Finally, this person thinks the husband should step up.

Overprotection can sometimes hold a person back more than their disability.

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.