Let me ask you something, have you ever been asked to babysit your family’s kids ? Well, this one man had enough of his siblings dumping their kids on him without even asking if he’ll like to babysit, so he came up with a clever scheme.
Now he’s asking the Reddit AITA community to tell him if he’s wrong for his actions. This story is quite intriguing, so check it out.
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Let’s get to the bottom of this, shall we?
A man who goes by the handle u/Low-Ad-1414 posted in the Reddit AITA community . Apparently, he’s known in his family as the “cool uncle.” And his siblings often end up dumping their kids for him to babysit at family functions.
So what’s the problem?
Well, you see, this man is single and feels that he doesn’t have enough experience to take care of one child, much less multiple kids at the same time. But his brother, especially, always finds a way to “dump” his kids on his lap.
This keeps happening at all the family functions.
His brother conveniently leaves him with the kids while he and his wife get to socialize with the adults in the adult area.
“It’s gotten so blatant on my brother’s end that lately at family events my brother will give me a physical paper list of parental duties, a backpack with stuff for the kids, then turn his phone off in front of me then walk away after dumping his kids on me,” he explained.
So, needless to say, this man had enough, and he came up with a clever idea to stop all that.
What is that, you ask?
He started to drink before family functions and then once the party starts. Now his family actually thinks that he’s drunk, lol. But the man had to do something. His brother went as far as giving him a list of parental duties, for crying out loud.
Oh, my goodness.
Can you believe that? I mean, who has the nerve to do that? As much as this man loves his nieces and nephews, he feels that he wants to enjoy family gatherings as much as the next person and not be stuck babysitting. And some of the kids he’s forced to watch may or may not have special needs he isn’t exactly equipped to handle.
So he wanted to know if he’s in the wrong in this situation.
And to his surprise, most people sided with his actions. Some have said this, “Not at all, but lol at your solution instead of just confronting them. You can do whatever you want at family parties BECAUSE you don’t have kids. I would maybe tell him that you’re not available to babysit at parties and he should plan accordingly.”
Hmm, I wonder if that would work?
Well, according to this person that wouldn’t probably work anyway: “Realistically though they won’t respect his saying no. The whole family will probably give him a hard time for ‘not being there for family’ that’s how these things always go. His way is probably the best drama-free way of dealing with it. Let your brother spread rumors. If anyone confronts you about it say you only get a little tipsy at family gatherings.”
There’s also this point somebody brought up.
“There are A LOT of parents that think that showing up at an event with their children means that supervision is automatically shared, to the point where they won’t watch their own kids no matter what. I got yelled at for leaving kids alone in a backyard when I didn’t even know that I was watching them.”
Yikes!
So, what do you think of this story? Was this man in the right place to act like this with his family? Or should he confront his siblings and tell them he can no longer babysit their kids at family functions?
I admit this is a tricky situation, and honestly, I’m not sure what I would do. If his siblings are reasonable people, they should understand, but he knows them better than me, so if he chose this way, I guess it’s the least confrontational approach.
