Helping others doesn’t always mean doing things for free.

In this story, a woman regularly trims her cats’ nails, but her roommate refuses to do it herself out of fear.

When her roommate asked her if she could do it for her cats, too, she said no unless she gets paid for it.

That’s when the situation quickly turned into an argument.

Let’s take a closer look!

AITA for trimming my own cats’ nails but not my roommates’ cats’ unless they pay me?

When I say trimming nails, think of it as cutting your own nails, not declawing.

I (29F) have four cats. Two are kittens.

One is technically an adult but barely out of kittenhood. One is four years old.

This woman trims the front nails of her young cats.

I can trim the three younger cats’ front nails.

They wiggle around a bit, but they are manageable.

The oldest is the most skittish because she used to be feral.

So I leave her alone.

Her roommate also has cats who scratch her.

My roommate (30F) has two cats of her own.

She is always complaining that hers play-scratch her.

She was complaining as I was trimming my cats’ nails.

So I just said, “That sucks.” I wanted to focus on my cats.

When her roommate asked if she could trim her cats’ nails, she refused.

My roommate watched for a few minutes then asked if I could cut her cats’ nails.

I initially said she could watch me and learn. She said no.

She said she is afraid of getting scratched.

So I said I would do it for $10 per cat per trim.

Her roommate got mad.

Then, my roommate got mad. She said, “How hard can it be?”

I finally looked up. I let my cat go.

I said, “Says the one who is afraid of getting scratched.”

Groomers charge more for nail trims. I know because I used to work as a pet bather.

Now, she’s wondering if she is in the wrong.

My roommate is still seething.

She is complaining about me wanting to be paid for it.

Am I the jerk?

Let’s read the responses of other people on this story.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Here’s another honest opinion.

This person makes a valid point.

Your roommate needs to grow up, says this one.

Finally, this one makes sense, too.

If it’s “not that hard,” then she could probably do it herself.

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.