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Family responsibilities get complicated when teenagers must sacrifice their own opportunities for childcare adults failed to arrange.

Here, one stepsister wants to join cheer, but doing so requires another teen to inherit three weekly school pickups.

That request would erase the second girl’s new driving freedom and limit her own extracurricular options before she has even chosen them.

See whether sibling fairness can fix a parenting problem.

AITAH for not taking turns walking our half sister home so my stepsister can do stuff after school?

My stepsister (f15) really wants to join cheer this year, but practice is 3 times a week after school and she wouldn’t be able to do it because she has to walk our half sister (f6) home from school (we don’t have school buses).

It shouldn’t be her responsibility, but sometimes families have to band together.

If she doesn’t walk our half sister home she gets grounded and won’t get an allowance. My stepsister said that my dad and her mom said they if she could get me to do it for her on those days then it would be okay for her to do cheer.

Driving would be a lot more convenient.

Honestly, I (f16) really don’t want to do it. Especially because I had planned on finally driving to and from school since my mom and stepdad finally bought me a car. Which is awesome because it means I won’t have to carry my stuff (including my trombone) to school and home everyday.

I also won’t have to leave as early to make sure I get to school on time.

Ahh yes, there are restrictions on new drivers.

But I’m not allowed to drive anyone (including my half-sister) in my car. That was one of the rules in exchange for getting me the car because I am a new driver and they don’t want me to have any distractions.

So, I wouldn’t be able to drive my half sister home. So, I would have to walk from my school to pick her up, walk her home, then walk back back to my school to get my car.

Yeah, that is a big waste of time and energy.

That just seems ridiculous and a waste of time though. So, it would make more sense for me to continue walking to and from school like before. Except that sucks because my half sisters school is even further away from my mom’s house (where I live).

Plus I would also like to sign up for extracurriculars. I’m not exactly sure which ones yet, but I would be limited to just two days a week, while my stepsister would get three days a week.

This sounds like a very difficult situation all around.

She says that’s even still unfair to her since she’s had to walk our half sister home by herself all last year and I didn’t at all.

So, she says she’s being nice by letting me have two days since our half sister is just as much my sister as she is hers, so I should be helping out more anyway.

AITA if I say no?

This is a very challenging situation. Can the half-sister come to their school and wait there until the older siblings get out of their activities? Or can the parents help sometimes?

Hopefully they will be able to figure something out that everyone can live with. Let’s see what the people in the comments suggest.

This is easy to say, but it doesn’t work in all situations.

Someone is going to be inconvenienced no matter what.

Yes, the parents should try to handle it, but that is not always possible.

The parents should step in to help figure this out.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who steps in to stop illegal driveway construction for friends down the road.

In a perfect world, this commenter is right.

OP refused to take over three weekly pickups because the long walking route would sideline her car and restrict her own after-school activities.

Many commenters argued the parents should solve their six-year-old’s transportation problem instead of making two teenagers trade away their extracurriculars.

The adults somehow created a childcare relay where the prize is exhaustion and both runners are minors who never entered the race.