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When we choose to have children, we’d like to think that we will be around to watch them grow up, to see them have children of their own, and even to see those children have their own children. Because if you want to be a parent, then being a grandparent and even a great-grandparent can be just as magical, giving you the opportunity to have even more descendants to love, care for, and watch grow up.

But unfortunately, in rare cases, life can be cruel and can take our lives much younger than we might have expected. So of course, when you have children it’s good to have loving friends and family around you, so that you know that if the worst should happen to you, you know that your children will be taken care of long after you’re gone.

Luckily for the teenage girl in this story, when her parents unexpectedly passed away, there was plenty of loving family to take care of her, and she started living with her grandparents – and shortly after, her cousin moved in too. Her extended family haven’t been short of love and opportunities for both nieces, but there has been one sticking point related to something she can’t even control.

Read on to find out more.

AITA for telling my niece I’m not obliged to find her a job because she’s allergic to dogs?

I (29, female) live with my husband and our two dogs a twenty minute drive from my childhood home. My parents are there with my two nieces, Sally and Emma (both sixteen).

Sally is my brother’s, who passed away along with his wife two years ago, and my parents are now her guardian. Emma is my sister’s who is currently working oversea for a few years.

She went to stay with my parents about the same time Sally did, and her mom is due back next year. Emma’s father has never been in her life.

Let’s see how this woman interacts with her nieces.

My husband’s family lives a few hours away and we always spend the December holiday with them, while my parents get Thanksgiving.

Ever since the girls moved in with my parents, I offered them the chance to pet sit my dogs for my husband and me. They would need to take them on walks and feed them and all that. We offered a rather generous pay for the job.

Sally is allergic to dogs while Emma is not. Emma took the job and did well, and has been our December pet sitter for a couple years now, as well as the occasional shorter term sitter other part of the year.

Last week I went to visit my parents and to ask Emma if she will take pet sitting again which she happily said yes. But I noticed that Sally was a bit sulky and asked her what was wrong.

Read on to find out what was wrong with Sally.

Sally said that Emma was lucky to be working for me at such a great pay and that she’s guaranteed a job every December, while Sally has to work minimum wage with the occasional baby sitting jobs.

Sally said I should get her a job, too, to be fair.

I told her I don’t create jobs just to hire people for them. The jobs were just there, needing to be done, and it is unfortunate but not my fault that she’s not qualified for a job I am in need of.

Sally said an allergy is not something she can control and Emma shouldn’t get to reap the benefits and it’s not fair. I told her sometimes life isn’t fair and suggests she finds what she can do and make the most out of it.

But this comment didn’t go down well.

My mom later called me and said I was being insensitive and maybe I could have Sally help file my documents or something. I told her I would be wasting money and time having Sally do something that doesn’t need to be done.

My mom said my husband and I are well off enough we can spare a few hundred bucks this holiday to save Sally’s feelings.

I don’t believe in coddling and I think Sally needs to learn things can’t always go her way.

AITA?

This woman definitely has a point – why pay for jobs that don’t need doing?

But the way she spoke to Sally, a girl who lost both her parents just two years before, was a bit insensitive.

She already knows how unfair life can be, and those words probably cut deep.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person agreed that while she wasn’t wrong about the jobs, she was wrong to speak to her niece the way she did.

While others thought they’d try to figure out something that Sally could do.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a brother who doesn’t want to help his sister cover their aging father’s groceries.

And this Redditor felt that the generous pay was the problem here.

It’s really good of this aunt to pay her niece so generously for looking after the dogs – after all, she could pay someone much less, but it’s clear that she wants her cash to go to her nieces instead, whilst also helping to support them. But it’s also understandable that this generous pay for Emma has Sally feeling a little jealous, since she knows that if she didn’t have an allergy, she could be earning a large sum around the holidays too.

Sure, it’s not up to this aunt to create a job for Sally, but given the tough time she’s been through it recent years it wouldn’t cost her a penny to be a little more sensitive to her situation. Certainly telling her that life isn’t fair is crossing the line, since Sally likely knows that even better than her aunt does. Now, it’s not about making jobs that don’t need doing for Sally, but surely there are jobs that this woman and her husband don’t really have time for – and if they can afford to pay Sally to do them, why not improve everyone’s quality of life by doing so? Sure she’s not obliged to help, but it would be nice.