Usually, when you’re asking someone for a favor, your family is the first people you go to. This is because they’re our most trusted people and we know they’ll do anything to help.

But what do you do when it feels like the favors are going too far, or too often? For this young woman, her parents seem to be asking her to watch their dogs more than she wants to.

Now, she’s not sure if she’s in the wrong for wanting to tell them no. Let’s get the full story…

AITA for not wanting to dog sit for my parents who should have known better

Am I the asshole for not wanting to dog sit for my parents, who should have known better than to get dogs?

Here’s some important background information. I am in my early 20’s and an only child. I am in college, and the campus is in the town where my parents live.

I live 45 minutes away and try to minimize the amount of time I have to commute, and try to make all my appointments or things I need to do in town coordinate with the days I have class.

I only go to the main town 3 days out of the week (M,T,Th). I am a broke college kid, and gas is expensive, the drive can be exhausting, and honestly, sometimes I just want to be in my own house and bed.

My dad works in a town several hours away, and will stay there for a few nights a week (3-4 nights), but if there is an emergency, he may need to stay for longer.

He cannot take the dogs with him because he can’t properly care for them at work. My mom frequently travels out of state as a part of her job.

She is often gone at least once a month for a few days at a time. She also has to take day trips to the other side of the state every so often and is gone all day.

This is a problem if my mom has to travel while my dad is away at work.

Despite knowing the nature of their jobs and their frequent traveling, they got not one but two dogs about 9 months ago. To make it worse, both dogs are young and high energy.

They were not trained, and so at night or when my parents aren’t home, they are in large crates. They try to keep them in there for only 6 hours at a time, so don’t worry, they are not in there for extended periods of time and have lots of time outside in the backyard.

They sometimes struggle to find someone to take care of the dogs, and boarding them is expensive, so the responsibility often falls on me.

Spending a night there every once in a while is fine, but since realizing that I am willing to do that, the frequency at which I am asked to house sit has increased.

I understand that sometimes it’s an emergency and out of their control, and they also can’t just not go to work. But they want me to house sit for multiple days at a time a lot in the next couple months.

Some of the time, it’s just the overlap of my dad at work and my mom traveling for work, but some of them are my dad just tagging along with my mom.

I am not saying they aren’t allowed to go on vacations, but some of those times, my dad doesn’t have to go and is just tagging along.

There are also days that my mom wants to go somewhere or do something that she will be gone for longer than 6 hours, and the dogs can’t be in the crate for that long and can’t be trusted outside.

They want me to make the drive and stay at their house for the day so they don’t have to be in the crates all day.

I feel bad for not wanting to do this, but they knew they were going to be gone frequently and still decided to get puppies. So ATIA for not wanting to dog/house sit?

Let’s get into the comments.

This person understands the parents needs, but thinks it’s gone too far.

Another commenter thinks they’re using her.

Several people recommended they actually hire a regular dog sitter.

And other parents in the comments support her and her boundaries.

I think the moral of the story here is: your dogs, your responsibility!

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.