Pet ownership is one of those decisions that should come with the understanding that the pet is your responsibility. Unfortunately, the young woman in this story learned that her sibling didn’t quite get the memo.

After helping out a few times as a favor, the woman suddenly found herself stuck dog-sitting every other weekend on top of working full-time and taking college classes.

But when she politely asked for less frequent duty, her sister branded her selfish and brought her parents into it too.

Now the whole family is acting like she committed a crime for wanting her weekends back.

Read on to see how the situation unfolded.

AITA for refusing to watch my sister’s dog every other weekend?

I’m 20F and my sister is 23F. She got a medium sized dog about a year ago.

At first she asked me to watch him sometimes when she had plans or went out of town and I said yes because I like the dog and I wanted to help out.

Her expectations have now gotten a lot bigger.

But now she expects me to take him every other weekend from Friday night to Sunday night.

I have been working since high school and I have moved up at my job.

This is in addition to an already packed schedule.

I work full time, usually 40 but sometimes up to like 50 hours a week, and sometimes the shifts are all over the place.

Plus I am taking college classes.

My weekends are the only time I get to sleep in, catch up on laundry, run errands, see my friends, and just chill.

Her sibling’s constant pestering about watching the dog is only making things worse, so she decides to set a boundary.

Having the dog every other weekend means I am stuck at home and I can’t make any real plans.

A few weeks ago I told my sister I can’t keep doing every other weekend anymore.

I said I am still happy to help sometimes like once every couple months, but not all the time.

Her sister didn’t take this well at all.

She got really mad and called me selfish and unreliable.

She told our parents that I refuse to help with the dog and that she has always helped me growing up.

The rest of the family soon got involved.

Now my mom keeps texting me saying family is supposed to support each other and it’s just a dog, so why can’t I be more flexible.

I don’t hate the dog at all. He is actually really sweet.

But she feels her sibling could take a little more accountability when it comes to her pet.

But my sister is the one who got a pet, so it should be her responsibility.

She works too and makes about the same as me so she could find a boarder or a regular sitter.

AITA for setting this boundary or am I being unreasonable?

Her sister’s pet, her sister’s problem.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter has a thing to say about the mom butting in.

If the parents want to help so badly, why don’t they just step in?

The mom is being a total hypocrite.

An occasional favor is one thing, but this sounds more like an unpaid second job.

She didn’t adopt the dog, her sister did. End of discussion.

Wanting her own weekends back isn’t selfish, it’s the bare minimum of self-care for someone working 50-hour weeks and studying on top of it. Helping family is great, but family doesn’t get to override your entire schedule because they made a pet decision you weren’t part of.

Knowing when to say “enough is enough” is one of the most important skills anyone can learn.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a teen who has spent a decade raising her younger siblings, and thinks it’s time to walk away from her family for good.