Internet Sides With Babysitter Who Left Child With A ‘Stranger’ So She Could Hang Out With Her Friends
It sounds like a bad decision but there's more to the story.
BaLL LunLa / Shutterstock When a woman decided that hanging out with friends she hadn't seen in years was more important to her than babysitting her niece, she found herself falling out with her unhappy sister.
After facing her sister’s wrath, the woman took to Reddit’s “r/AmItheA--hole” (AITA) thread to ask for some outside opinions from internet users.
Since the woman lived close to her sister and her husband, she often ended up babysitting their 1-year-old daughter, Ava.
In this instance, the woman’s sister had plans with her husband because of their wedding anniversary.
As a result, the woman agreed to babysit Ava for the night, but something else came up later.
“My plans changed however when some of my old college friends told me they were stopping by my town on Friday," the woman wrote.
"I haven't seen them in nearly 3 years and really wanted to see them."
She then messaged her sister to let her know of her changed plans, giving her five days to make other plans for Ava.
RELATED: Mother Asks If She's Wrong For Installing GPS Tracker On 15-Year-Old Daughter’s Car
Since her sister read the message, the woman thought everything worked out — she was proven wrong when her sister came to her house with Ava on the night they had originally talked about.
The woman explained, “I said again I was busy, she replied that family is more important than my ‘silly college friends’ and I should step up to my responsibility as an aunt.”
Before the woman could speak up for herself, her sister had left the house.
The woman tried calling her sister but she refused to pick up the phone.
As there were no other family members nearby, the woman called her friend, Jade.
Jade was a stranger to her sister and her niece but the woman trusted her.
“She is good with kids and does babysitting as a side hustle. I called her and explained the situation, even offering to pay her to look after Ava, but she was understanding and said she'd do it for free,” the woman explained.
She then dropped off Ava at Jade’s house and went to hang out with her friends. She explained the situation to her sister, telling her to pick Ava up from Jade's place once she was home.
However, this is when all hell broke loose.
Her sister was furious that Ava was spending the day with a complete stranger to her.
The woman added, “They picked up Ava later that evening and she was perfectly happy, however, my sister and BIL [brother-in-law] are furious at me for ‘dumping Ava with a stranger’ (even though they know Jade is a trusted friend of mine.)”
Both her sister and brother-in-law felt that the woman was being irresponsible by leaving Ava with someone she didn’t know.
Later, the rest of the woman’s family members also found out about her idea and have been chiding her, so the woman thought that she may have made a bad decision.
Redditors let the woman know that she wasn’t wrong.
One user wrote, “Your sister was, monumentally irresponsible. You gave her plenty of time to make other arrangements and she decided that HER plans were more important than yours.”
Another person commented, “If she was that worried about her daughter, your sister shouldn't have bolted for the car when she knew you had plans. You didn't put your niece in a dangerous situation.”
Sanika Nalgirkar is a News & Entertainment Writer for YourTango. She has a master's degree in Creative Writing. See more of her writing on her website.