Source: Reddit
My (f20) younger sister (f15) came to visit our city for a few weeks as part of her summer vacation. She split her time between my place and my aunt’s (f30) place.
My aunt has 2 toddlers, and is currently on maternity leave. While my sister was at my aunt’s, she spent most of her time babysitting (unpaid) while my aunt went out to see friends, get her nails done, dates with husband, etc. Every single day she was there, she was babysitting for between 4-8 hours a day. There was one day where my aunt was gone all day, came home briefly, and went back out again for the evening, leaving my sister with the kids literally all day.
A few days ago, I asked my sister if she wanted to come to Dave & Busters with me and some friends. She tells me she really wants to, but can’t because she’s babysitting again. I told her that she’s allowed to decline. She was a bit scared to say no, but yesterday she told my aunt that she can’t babysit on Friday (today). My aunt says too bad, they have a dinner reservation at an expensive restaurant and will lose the deposit ($250) if they don’t show up. My sister told my aunt that she was exhausted from babysitting, but my aunt basically said sorry, but she has to stay and watch the kids. My sister is was disappointed, but didn’t put up any more fight.
At that point, I decided to intervene and told my aunt I’d be picking up my sister on Friday and that’s the end of it. She sent me a whole bunch of texts after that, but honestly I didn’t reply or even read them.
I show up to pick up my sister, and my aunt comes out to my car yelling at me. She says it’s not my business what my sister does and she’s staying. I ignored my aunt and saw my sister at the door and yelled over to her to come get in the car. She did. My aunt couldn’t believe that she was actually leaving and started yelling at my sister too. My sister looked scared, but I told her to just get in the car. We drove away.
They couldn’t find a replacement babysitter last minute and ended up missing their reservation and being charged for that cancellation.
My mom is with me on this and said I did good for getting my sister out of the house. But, another aunt heard about the story and she told me I shouldn’t have picked up my sister after aunt #1 said she already had dinner reservations. She also said that I shouldn’t have intervened and should have let my sister learn to stand up for herself.
So now I am questioning if I should have let my sister stay there and learn a lesson in standing up to people or if I did the right thing. Am i A Jerk for picking up my sister and leaving.
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