Blended families work best when responsibility is shared fairly, not handed to whoever is youngest or most convenient.

One stepmother struggled to balance new work hours and quickly decided her teenage stepdaughter should step in.

But when she expected the teen to give up her extracurriculars to babysit her little stepbrothers every afternoon, conflict hit the household hard.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for “forcing” stepdaughter to babysit?

I’m mom to two boys, Zonnie (7M) and Xavier (5M). My husband Carl (45M) has Chasity (16F) from his ex-wife.

They had split custody, but his ex actually passed a few months ago. So understandably Carl got full custody.

The transition hasn’t been perfect, but everyone has made the best of it for the most part.

Chasity has lived with us full-time for about 3 months.

It was an adjustment, but there’ve been few issues. Chasity is a nice enough girl, not really argumentative like a lot of kids that age.

I’ve been trying not to meddle around in her life because at her age it’s her choice what relationship she has with me. I’d say we’re on decent terms.

But when her scheduled changed dramatically, she realized childcare would become a problem.

But then my work changed my hours.

I used to work an 8–2:30 shift and my husband the traditional 9–5, so it meshed well with getting the boys to school/preschool.

Now I’m doing 10:30–5. It’ll be better pay, and our family can certainly use the extra money, but Zonnie and Xavier leave school at 3.

I could time a break to get them from school, but I can’t watch them while I work the rest of the day.

She sees Chasity as an easy choice to take on the babysitting, but Chasity refused.

Chasity, however — her school ends at I think 2:20. I really don’t see any reason why she can’t watch the boys for a couple hours until we get back.

Chasity had a fit though. She said she doesn’t want to babysit.

Apparently she wanted to do a few clubs this semester and would have to stay after school.

This stepmother sympathizes to a point, but still thinks Chasity should just basically get over it.

I understand where she’s coming from but told her that just isn’t going to work this time around, and maybe things will be different next semester.

She also told me Zonnie in particular “isn’t nice to her,” but that really sounds like an excuse since she hasn’t said anything before.

Now she’s got Carl on her side too, which made Chasity even madder.

Carl sides with me.

He believes that Chasity absolutely should help out with her brothers — it sucks she had other plans, but we all have things that we do for family.

He told her this.

Chasity is still ticked and says we’re both “jerks who are ruining her life.” Those were her exact words, and Carl ended up taking her phone as a result of it.

This stepmother largely dismisses Chasity’s feelings, but still wonders if she took things too far.

I feel like this is primarily just teen melodrama, but she’s still terse (this was several days ago), and I really am wondering if I overstepped.

I feel for her not getting to do her extracurriculars, but I definitely believe we all have obligations to our loved ones, and this is one.

AITA?

This stepmother had managed to treat a grieving teen like a scheduling solution instead of a person.

What did Reddit think?

When a teenager under her circumstances wants to get involved out of the house, parents should encourage it, not hold her back.

This stepmother shouldn’t sabotage her stepdaughter’s social life for her own selfish means.

Having a teenager around doesn’t automatically mean a free babysitter.

This commenter thinks this stepmother is asking way too much of her stepdaughter.

This stepmother called it “family obligation,” but it looked a lot more like exploiting a teen who couldn’t say no.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.