There’s a big difference between helping someone study and doing the work for them, but a stressed parent doesn’t always feel that way.

When a teen was assigned by his father to tutor his failing sibling through her final exams, he quickly realized she had no interest in actually understanding the material and just wanted him to give her answers to memorize.

He refused, and still somehow ended up being the problem.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for refusing to teach my sister?

I (16M) was told — not asked — by my father to teach my younger sister (15F).

Earlier this school year, she was failing at multiple subjects: her grades were way below average, and extra classes weren’t helping with the problem.

This teen wasn’t happy about the idea, but decided he didn’t have much choice.

Since I was the smarter one, my dad instantly assumed that it is my job to help her for the final grade exam, which I’m not happy with in the first place.

Regardless, I decided to help her.

Right away, he realized he had his work cut out for him.

But when I started to ask her about basic knowledge in her courses, I soon came into the realization that she has lost foundation across multiple subjects, mostly science-related subjects like math, physics, chemistry, and even biology, which is her major.

His sibling’s work ethic also left a lot to be desired.

Not only that, she was very lazy: she barely did any homework or review, and somehow demands me to just tell her the answer so she could memorize it.

She has shown potential in the past to excel academically.

In case if anyone was wondering if she could possibly have ADHD, she doesn’t, and I know that because she was actually capable of learning hard courses, especially when she was capable of participating in extra math classes to take the entrance exam for her school (it is a gifted school).

He feels his father babies her too much.

But the worst part is that my father allowed it to happen, simply because in his words, “she doesn’t have time to start all over again.”

I obviously didn’t want that to happen.

He’s starting to feel like this arrangement is going to hinder his own success.

I don’t want to write out the answers for her today just to get asked again when she has another test.

And I have my own review and homework to do on top of that.

We got into an argument, and she said I was supposed to help her and I’m “making everything complicated” and that “I could just say yes.”

Finally, he told his father he just wouldn’t do it.

In the end, I flat out refused to teach her.

But at the same time, I feel confused, like I might have been too forceful on her, and also a bit of guilt on how it would have been my responsibility if she fails this upcoming exam.

AITA?

Big yikes.

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter lists out several objections to this story.

ADHD is a lot more complicated than a lot of people realize.

This user thinks there’s more than enough blame to go around here.

Why not lead with a little more empathy?

His sibling just wanted a free pass, not a real tutor. And at the end of the day, that wasn’t really his problem.

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