Imagine cleaning the kitchen after dinner while your whole family chills in the living room. If you asked them to help you with one cleaning task and they didn’t rush to help you immediately, would you be upset and do the task yourself, or would you wait a few minutes?

In this story, one teenage girl is in this exact situation, and the biggest issue seems to be a lack of clear communication.

Keep reading to see if her reaction to the situation was appropriate or understandable.

AITA for getting mad over cast iron?

Very small instance, but it really, really bugged me.

I(16f) had a hard day today, with much mental and physical stress. I was working all day, and was excited to come home, eat, and go to sleep.

The rule in my 5 person household (2 sisters, me, mom and dad) is that whoever cooks doesn’t have to clean and the rest of the family should help out.

Despite this, I was the only one in the kitchen cleaning il the mess my dad made. I was grateful he cooked, so I didn’t complain.

She just wanted a little help with one task.

While I was washing dishes and watching the rest of my family sit on their phones at the table, I called out to ask if anyone could help me move out heavy cast iron pans back into the oven (I admit that I can totally do it, but I hate it and they’re really heavy. It was just a simple ask that wouldn’t take too long and would really lighten my load so I could clean the stove).

My sister mumbled out a ‘yeah’ but neither she nor the rest of my family moved, so I asked again.

I said “No? Nobody? Okay, whatever.”

It was sort of snarky, I know.

But help was on the way.

I moved the pans and cleaned the stove.

While I was moving them my dad asked “oh, are you doing it?” and I was sort of annoyed so I responded with a tone that reflected it.

My sister got defensive and said that I should’ve specified that I needed help NOW not later, and that they couldn’t read my mind.

She thought “now” was obvious.

I said that none of them had helped clean up, and asked when else I would be asking for the help to be given? I said that instead of making me read THEIR minds, they could’ve asked “now?” to clear up their confusion.

I wasn’t even totally sure they’d heard me the first time.

I said that if someone asked me for help and didn’t specify when, I would assume they meant now, not whenever I felt like it.

I kept kind of going off like this, which I feel bad for because it was just my last straw of the day, but it might have been a bad thing to do.

It sounds like her dad and sister were both ready to help just a few minutes later. Perhaps if they had said something like “be there in a minute” it would’ve been clearer, but I think she is making a big deal out of nothing.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is a good idea.

Here’s another tip for next time.

Another person suggests letting someone else step up to clean.

Nobody thinks she did anything wrong.

“Now” really was implied.

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.