Regardless of what some people think, working from home does not mean you’re always available.

So, what would you do if your roommate kept asking you to babysit their loud toddler during your work hours, but you had meetings and deadlines to meet? Would you rearrange your schedule to help? Or would you protect your career and refuse to help?

In today’s story, one remote worker finds herself in this exact scenario and opts for the latter. Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for refusing to babysit my roommate’s noisy toddler because it disrupts my work-from-home schedule?

I (30F) live with a roommate who has a toddler.

I work from home full-time and have a very strict schedule with meetings and deadlines.

Recently, my roommate has been asking me to watch their toddler during the day so they can run errands or have some free time.

There’s no way she can watch the child and work at the same time.

I’ve refused multiple times because the toddler is very loud and unpredictable, and watching them seriously disrupts my ability to focus and meet work commitments.

I’ve offered to help out occasionally but made it clear that I can’t take on regular babysitting.

My roommate says I’m being selfish and not a good friend for not helping more, especially since we share the apartment and they don’t have family nearby.

AITA?

Wow! That sounds like some selfish behavior on the roommate’s part.

Let’s check out how the readers at Reddit feel about this.

Here’s something the roommate should consider.

For this reader, it’s about being firm.

According to this comment, there’s a difference between a roommate and a friend.

Here’s what this person would do.

Her roommate needs to figure something else out, because this isn’t her problem.

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.