Holiday gatherings are bound to test anyone’s boundaries, especially when relatives start treating your time like it’s free.

So when one software engineer headed home for the holidays, she planned to spend her mornings quietly working on her freelance projects.

But after she refused to slash her babysitting rate for three kids, her cousin and husband resorted to name-calling — and she refused to back down.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for saying my babysitting rates are $35 an hour?

I’m a software engineer, with a full-time job and a side hustle of doing freelance coding work in my own time.

I’ve always been the type to have a side hustle I put a lot of my free time into; I get really bored sitting idle.

My freelance hourly rates are $60 an hour, and at my full-time job, my hourly pay works out to about $40 an hour.

So that’s how I value my time.

So when she visited home for the holidays, she planned to dedicate a fair amount of time to freelance work.

Anyway, over Christmas vacation, I was staying at my parents’ house.

My cousin was also staying over with her three young kids from Christmas to New Year’s.

I’d been planning on doing some work on my freelance projects when I had free time; in the mornings when my family had no plans.

I wasn’t in any rush; I was already ahead of schedule on them all, but I didn’t really have anything else to do.

It was in a really rural area, and it’s like an hour drive to the nearest anything.

Soon, her cousin had another job for her.

Then my cousin and her husband asked if I could babysit all day for three days, so they could visit some friends in the area and hang out with just adults.

I said I had planned on doing freelance work at the library, and she offered to pay me to babysit.

I said I could if they got close to my freelance rates.

This put this freelancer in a bit of a tough position.

She wanted a number, and although my freelance rates are $60, I didn’t feel like that was right—it was high.

But I didn’t want to go too low; honestly, babysitting three kids would be harder for me than the routine coding work I had for my freelance project.

I don’t know a lot about kids and I’ve never babysat for long, and I had a feeling it would be stressful and difficult.

So when she ended up naming her rate, her cousin was insulted.

So I said $35, which is below what I make hourly at work, and what is the bare minimum I’d value my time for, if that time is spent doing difficult work.

And she went crazy at me, saying that’s a ridiculous rate for babysitting, that I was entitled and being selfish, that I’m trying to take advantage of how she didn’t have other options, etc.

I said that’s way below what I’d be making if I had the time to do my own work, and I’d be putting off my own work to babysit.

Her cousin’s husband started piling on too with the name-calling.

Her husband then got mad at me, saying that I was a 24-year-old girl, that I’m dang near a child myself, that my time is not worth that much and it’s childish to say that it was.

And that I was a stupid girl for not knowing that babysitting costs like 15 an hour, and when I grew up and have kids of my own, I will see how stupid I was being.

Regardless, this freelancer held her ground against the disrespect.

I was kind of done with being called stupid, so I just told them I hoped they could find someone else.

My mom thinks that I asked for something offensive, and my cousin and her husband obviously did too.

AITA for giving that number?

Kinda sounds like this freelancer dodged a bullet.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks the only people in the wrong here were the entitled parents.

When will people realize that yelling at someone rarely gets you your way?

There are four compelling reasons why this freelance coder isn’t in the wrong.

Everyone seems to have a very different idea on what’s considered an acceptable babysitting rate.

Her family’s tantrum only ended up revealing just how entitled they really were.

Respect isn’t optional, and she had every right to demand what she was worth.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.