Long-term childcare agreements between family members rely heavily on mutual respect. But when that respect falters, everything else can fall apart almost instantly.

That’s exactly how a simple babysitting agreement between sisters turned into a frantic drive home and an unexpected meeting with the police.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for not babysitting for my sister in law any more after she called the police on me?

My sister-in-law and I have an agreement. She watches my kids three days a week, and I watch hers three days a week.

This agreement has stood since March 2020 without issues. Any changes have been discussed weeks in advance.

One day, a chain of events led to a catastrophic misunderstanding.

A couple of weeks ago, we had an argument. The next day, I brought my kids to her house, dropped them off, and left.

I didn’t speak to my sister-in-law because when one of us is in a rush, like I was, it’s standard for us to just let the kids out, stay in the car, and drive off when you see the door open.

I drove to work, about 40 minutes away.

Soon, she realized her sister had been trying to get ahold of her.

When I got there, I had about 20 missed calls and even more texts, all from my sister-in-law, all saying she didn’t want to watch the kids given our argument.

Her first text arrived a little before I got to her place, but I didn’t see it until I got to work because my phone is always on silent when I drive.

Her sister started making threats, and she wasn’t able to leave work right away.

I rang her and said I’d arrange to work from home, then come get the kids. She said I had 45 minutes to get back to her place or she would call the police.

I told my supervisor the situation, and she said I could leave after I did a few things. This delayed me 20 minutes.

This led her sister to follow through on her threat.

When I got back to my sister-in-law’s, just over an hour later, she said she’d already called the police when the 45 minutes ran out.

I then had to stick around long enough to tell the officer that I didn’t abandon my children; there was just a communication issue.

My sister-in-law and I had another shouting match later over this. I arranged other childcare for my kids, and I’ve been mostly ignoring her since.

But when her sister tries to make nice again, this mother makes it clear she’s not interested.

However, she reached out and apologized and has asked if I’d be willing to go back to the old childcare arrangement.

I’ve told her to go **** herself.

Her sister doesn’t seem to understand the full magnitude of what she’s done.

I work with kids. If I got child abandonment on my record, I would never work in my field again, which she knew, and her calling the police was a massive overreaction, so if she needs a babysitter, she can go whistle for all I care.

She thinks her own sister should have given her the benefit of the doubt.

She said that if I checked my phone, talked to her that morning, or came back when I was supposed to, she would not have needed to call the police.

She said I did this to myself, as she gave me a warning with that first text and I could have checked my phone or spoken to her directly when I got to her place, all of which she says she would have done if she were in my position, given that we’d argued the night before.

I’ve told her that if she thinks I’m babysitting for her, she’s delusional, and she’s on her own.

But this leads to unintended consequences for her sister, which leads to even more pressure from the rest of her family.

Because of my refusal, it’s looking like she may have to quit her job because my brother and she would pay more for a babysitter than they would earn from her working.

My mother and brother have both called me an AH because there were no consequences to her calling the police, and that while she overreacted, she’s apologized, so if I really forgive her, I’ll let us move on.

This income loss would also mean that she, my brother, and my niece and nephew might need to move somewhere cheaper.

They said my brother might have to take on extra hours at work, and in an extreme scenario, they may even be completely unable to live independently, meaning they’d have to move in with her parents, who live several hours away.

AITA?

This experience would make almost anyone second-guess.

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

Her sister needs to learn that actions have consequences.

This commenter can’t believe this woman’s family would defend her sister’s rotten behavior.

It’s going to be hard to trust her sister again after this stunt.

This user has several thoughts on why this sister is so obviously in the wrong.

This woman learned the hard way that just because someone is family doesn’t automatically mean you can trust them.

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.