Friendship sometimes requires compromise, but it does not make everyone responsible for each other’s personal expenses.

A young father wanted to join a rare night out and asked his friends to divide the babysitting bill equally.

His friends offered cheaper alternatives, but none matched the evening he wanted.

Check out the full breakdown.

AITA for refusing to split cost of friend’s babysitter?

“I (19m) still keep in touch with three of my childhood friends, James (18m), Kallum (18m) and Rob (19m).

James moved away when we were 14, so we only see him once a year if we’re lucky. Kallum, Rob and I try to meet up every other Saturday, but this doesn’t always happen because Rob has a child (1f) with his fiancee (20f) who he needs to take care of.

They do their best…

We do make compromises to include Rob. Sometimes, if he has to look after the kid, we’ll go out for breakfast instead of going out in the evening, but if one of us has been out on a Friday night that doesn’t always work.

On Thursday, James and his family will be making their annual visit to his grandparents, so we’re going out Saturday evening. Unfortunately, Rob’s fiancee is working and needs him to watch their daughter.

Hmmm…

Rob has asked us all to contribute towards paying for a babysitter so he can attend our night out. I understand why he really wants to be able to come, but he insists on splitting it four ways equally and everything, fuel, drinks, food etc, is expensive these days.

Rob’s also got a really bad habit of never paying people back. We tried to compromise, suggesting we meet up closer to home for an hour, so he doesn’t have to pay as much for the babysitter, and then go to the city later, but he rejected that.

They’re not into this idea…

Rob suggested spending the night in with him as his daughter will already be in bed by then, but that doesn’t really sound like a fun Saturday night.

Rob says James and I are being jerks and trying to ‘punish’ him for having a kid. We think he’s a bit of a jerk for demanding our money and not bringing this up sooner (he literally mentioned it for the first time today).

AITA?

Should I have agreed to split the cost of his sitter?”

Let’s see what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person said he’s NTA.

Another individual agreed.

This reader had a lot to say.

Another Reddit user shared their thoughts.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an incoming college student who does not want to share their grandparents’ monetary gift with a medically complex sibling.

And this individual spoke up.

This young man reasonably refused to fund his friend’s babysitter, especially after several cheaper compromises were rejected.

Rob was not being punished for having a child because arranging and paying for childcare remained his responsibility.

Parenthood may take a village, but Saturday drinks do not require a village tax.