Child custody gets even trickier when both parents have children who go back and forth between their mom’s house and their dad’s house.

In today’s story, the child custody schedule was working just fine until the dad remarried and the new stepsiblings didn’t get along with his daughter.

Changing the custody schedule has resulted in the girl’s mom and stepdad fighting over who is going to watch her on Saturdays.

Let’s see how the drama escalates…

AITA for telling my wife I’m not going to sacrifice my hobbies just so that I can babysit?

My wife Jane (34F) and I (38M) have been together for 5 years.

She also brought my stepdaughter Emily (9F) into our marriage.

We have her for four days a week (M-T) while she’s at her dad’s Fri-Sun.

From the beginning, Jane told me Emily doesn’t need a second father figure as she has her dad to fill that role.

I was only supposed to be a trusted authority figure in case she ever needed anything.

I didn’t mind and try my best to respect that boundary.

She’s a sweet child anyway and doesn’t cause trouble, so it’s not like I have to discipline her.

Her father is also a good dad.

Emily’s dad wants to change the custody schedule.

Emily’s dad recently got married, and his wife has two kids of her own who are at their place Wednesday to Saturday and at their dads’ Sunday to Tuesday.

Emily and her new stepsiblings don’t get along at all.

They’re always fighting, and it’s pretty toxic.

Emily’s dad asked Jane if they change their custody schedule to match his stepkids’ to keep the children apart.

It’s not a big deal in and of itself because we don’t live far from each other, so picking and dropping is no issue and she can easily be dropped off to school no matter where she stays.

The issue is my wife agreed to it without consulting me.

Jane needs him to watch Emily on Saturdays.

Jane is currently doing a certification course for the next 12 months, and they have classes on Saturdays from 9-5pm.

She asked me if I can babysit Emily on Saturdays, but I can’t because I play golf with my brother and sister on Saturday mornings from 8am-1pm.

This has been our tradition from before Jane and Emily came into my life, and I had told Jane from much before that this is important to me and my siblings.

She asked if I can move to another day, but that’s not possible either because my siblings also have jobs and families of their own.

So Saturday was the best day for us.

He and Jane got into a fight.

I told her she can hire a babysitter, but she doesn’t want to spend money when I can do it for free.

I told her that wouldn’t work for me.

She then got mad and said golf is stupid and I should put my stepdaughter over my siblings.

That made me mad, so I told her I’m not going to sacrifice my hobbies just so that she can have a free babysitter.

Jane is still mad.

For the record, I don’t have anything against Emily.

I’ve babysat her before and she’s a good kid.

If there was a family emergency, or if it was an occasional occurrence, then yeah I would cancel golf for that day to take care of her, but I can’t give up something this important to me for 12 months continuous.

She called me selfish and slept on the couch last night.

So AITA?

It sounds like Jane should’ve checked to see if he could watch Emily on Saturdays before agreeing to change the custody schedule.

Now, it’s up to her to find a babysitter.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

Maybe the 9 year old is responsible enough to be left home alone.

Emily’s dad should address the bullying situation.

His wife messed up.

Maybe he could bring Emily golfing.

They might have to pay someone to babysit.

Or maybe she could come along.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.