Teenage Aunt Refuses To Follow Any 'Rules' For Her Nieces And Nephews When She Babysits Them For Free
She draws the line at anything unsafe. But does she really owe them anything else if she's not getting paid?
asife | Shutterstock Nowadays, most parents have some pretty iron-clad rules and procedures for child-rearing. But when it comes to leaving the kids with a babysitter, it can be pretty hard to enforce all these rules.
One teen on Reddit who babysits her nieces and nephews doesn't even bother trying — she's decided she sets the rules when she's in charge, whether her siblings like it or not. And it's caused quite a bit of drama in the family.
The teen refuses to follow rules when babysitting her nieces and nephews because her siblings don't pay her.
"My family tends to stick me with my nieces and nephews when we get together," she wrote in her since-deleted Reddit post, adding that she is "also the go-to for babysitting." That's no small job, of course, but it's one she is forced to do for free.
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"I do not get paid for this because … my siblings watched me when I was little," she wrote, and because of this her siblings say she "owes" them — which would be reasonable if she'd had any say in the matter of being born and who cared for her, but since she didn't that argument doesn't really hold water!
Still, as annoying as that is, she doesn't truly mind babysitting because she loves all her nieces and nephews, and "they are well-behaved and polite." What she does mind is the multiple demands her siblings make of her while babysitting, which she refuses to indulge.
Her siblings make demands about everything from the kids' diet to the media they watch, but she refuses to follow them unless they pay her.
"I also have no [expletives] to give when it comes to the rules regarding watching them," she went on to say in her post. She's careful about the kids' safety, but beyond that, what she says, goes.
"If you want your kid to eat vegan, then you better bring a vegan meal for them. Otherwise, they get pizza," she continued. "If they aren't allowed to watch 'woke' movies or TV, then it's up to you to provide a TV and media because I'm putting on 'Frozen' or something."
Fair enough, especially since none of these people could probably even define what "woke" means anyway.
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It's caused quite a bit of controversy in her family, and her parents keep insisting she has to follow their rules. "I just keep asking why?" she said. "What's the worst anyone can do to me? Take away my free babysitting? Oh, poor me."
She also brought the kids back "wet and filthy" from excursions like cliff jumping at a nearby lake. Hilariously, when her siblings got angry and told her she was an unfit babysitter, she simply offered them "a full refund" for the services they insisted she provide for free.
She's also independently wealthy due to an inheritance she and her siblings all got from their grandmother and has a full scholarship to college, so her family "have no hold over me." She insisted that if they want her to babysit the way they want, she is "more than willing to follow any rule I am paid to follow."
Most people on Reddit agreed that what her siblings were asking of her was unreasonable given their refusal to pay her.
As a parent, it is surely enervating to get your kids back wet and dirty, full of unhealthy food and the "horrifying agenda" of "woke" "propaganda" like "Frozen." (Please let those scare quotes imbue those words with the most sarcastic tone you can possibly imagine.)
And it's perhaps not unreasonable to ask a family member to help you out for free. What is unreasonable, though, is to expect and demand a family member to not only agree to do it for free but to go out of their way to accommodate your preferences. That's not how anything works.
Redditors took major issue with this situation, too, starting with the notion that she "owes" her siblings free babysitting. "You don't get paid because they are entitled," one person wrote. "They did this for your parents, not you. You owe them nothing for looking after you."
Even many parents said they'd feel only one thing about this situation if they were in this teen's siblings' shoes: appreciation. "If I had a sister who would take my kids cliff jumping all day for FREE so my husband and I could just tidy the house or do DIY or, heaven forbid, relax," one mom wrote, "I would be limp with gratitude."
When someone gives you something for free, there's pretty much the only thing you're allowed to say in return: "Thank you." Beyond that? Well, as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.