When you have multiple conflicting responsibilities, such as babysitting and work, it can be hard to juggle everything and make it work.

What would you do if you were called in to work while you were babysitting your cousin and nobody could cover your shift?

That is what happened to the young woman in this story, so she did what her boss said and brought the child to work. Now, everyone is upset with her.

Did she mess up, or did she do the right thing under the circumstances?

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for bringing my baby cousin to work with me?

Hey so I’m 18 years old and work at a local fast food place. (Think burgers, hotdogs, sandwiches, that type of thing).

My aunt and uncle just got married so I agreed to watch my aunts son Kason for the week for their honey moon. They offered me far better money than I make at my job.

I requested the week off and every single day off approved except for Thursday (today).

No, it is the manager’s job to find someone to work. Not the employee.

I texted this coworker of mine (Julia) to ask her to cover my shift. She agreed.

However, this morning my general manager Kathy calls me and says Julia is out sick. She says its my responsibility to either get that shift cover or come in. It wasn’t Julia’s responsibility because she had a doctors note.

I text several of my coworkers. They either don’t respond or say no.

I text Kathy and tell her I can’t get the shift covered. I had no one else to watch Kason because my parents and sister were not home.

She said that she never approved this vacation day because we were so short staffed and I would get written up for an unexcused absence because I didn’t have a doctors note.

That is very understanding of Jeremiah.

I call the restaurant and speak to Jeremiah (the assistant manager on duty).

He tells me to just “bring the kid in and have him sit in one of the booths”.

So thats what I did.

My shift was 8 hours long. I know this may seem ridiculous because Kason is only 5 years old. But I had him sit in a booth and I let him have my laptop and watch movies. I brought tons of juice boxes and bought him food whenever he was hungry.

She shouldn’t be fired for doing what the assistant manager told her to do.

I made it about six hours into the shift until Kathy comes in and sends me home. She says that what I did was a major liability to the company and I may be fired. Even though I did exactly what Jeremiah and her told me to do.

I came home crying and explained the situation to my mom who became rather upset about me having Kason sitting in a booth all day.

She calls my aunt to explain the situation from her and now she’s even talking about coming home from Hawaii early. She said “I can’t believe I let a little girl be in charge and now my honeymoon is ruined”.

She’s really upset about how this worked out.

Everything is falling apart even though I did everything right.

I took a vacation from work to watch the kid. I got my unproved shift covered. I tried my best not to get fired. I went to work. I listened to Jeremiah. I made sure Kason was entertained and had food all day. I worked up front and could see him all day.

This is all Jeremiah’s fault. I should have never listened to him.

AITA?

This is a stressful situation where all the older adults are overreacting. The child was cared for and the work got done. While not ideal, nothing bad happened.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit say about this situation.

Finding employees to work is 100% the manager’s job.

Yeah, bringing a kid to work is no big deal.

I agree with this commenter.

It may have been a bad choice to bring the child to work.

This former manager thinks the bosses were in the wrong.

She was doing the best she could in a difficult situation.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.