Stepson tells dad's new wife; 'I will NOT be babysitting YOUR kids.' AITA?

"AITA for telling my dad's new wife I'm not her kids babysitter?"

My dad has been married 6-7 times before. And now he's married again to either wife #7 or wife #8. It's hard to keep up and some of the marriages happened before I (19m) was born or when I was too young to remember.

My dad knows not to try and make a big happy blended family with me and these women he marries anymore. He tried that a couple of times and it failed so badly that he knows I'm his kid, he can still be in my life, but not to expect me to treat the new people he cycles through like they're important to me.

His new wife did not get the memo. She's 10 years younger than him, 35 to his 45, and she has young kids.

She called me a couple of times and I didn't answer because I didn't have her number but then we spoke after she called from my dad's phone and she wanted to ask me to babysit her kids one Saturday night when I was supposed to be staying at my uncle's place a few minutes from theirs.

I told her no and she questioned me on it but I told her to accept the answer and leave it there.

She called me back a few weeks later and she said she heard I'd spent a night with my grandparents and she told me if she had dad had known I could have stayed with them and babysat and they could have gone on a date night.

I told her I'm not her kids babysitter and she needs to stop acting like I am. She did seem surprised I was so upfront about that and she told me we're family and I should try to get to know her kids and spend time with them. So I repeated myself that I'm not her kids babysitter and I ended the call.

She keeps trying to call me again but I told dad she'd used his phone twice already and I won't be answering as long as it could be her on the other side. She sent me texts from her phone saying I'm a grown man who should know better. AITA?

Let's see what readers had to say:

comfsea writes:

NTA. His new wife did not get the memo. She's 10 years younger than him, 35 to his 45, and she has young kids.

She called me a couple of times and I didn't answer because I didn't have her number but then we spoke after she called from my dad's phone and she wanted to ask me to babysit her kids one Saturday night when I was supposed to be staying at my uncle's place a few minutes from theirs. I told her no and she questioned me on it but I told her to accept the answer and leave it there.

You are not responsible for your dad's wife's kids. Make this your hill to die on OP because it sounds like SM is not the sharpest tool in the shed!!! Either that, or acting like an entitled toddler.

crowna7 writes:

"You're stepmom number 8. If you make it to the 3 year mark we'll talk again. Until then, you're just some character actor guest-starring in an episode of my dad's wacky sitcom about a guy who has terrible taste in partners. Take care of your own kids."

histsuit writes:

The final straw is that she called you a grown ass man who should know better. She’s calling YOU stupid for not babysitting her kids? She’s a grown ass woman SHE should know better than to try to manipulate a 19 year old into taking her responsibility.

You clearly do know better as this isn’t your first rodeo but its her first rodeo and she doesn’t get that ur a grown adult with ur own life and she needs to hire an actual baby sitter for her date nights. Nta get a job and go to school to avoid being trapped.

fleurrr writes:

LMAO, the audacity of her to boldly tell you "I wish I'd known you were close by so I could have used you for free labor."

She's not even trying very hard to pretend it's about being family. She blatantly wants to use you.

Instead of 'come to dinner so we can get to know each other', it's 'hey I need a favor from a 'grown man' that I barely know, come babysit my (random to you) children'. I wonder how much success she's had in her life, trying to catch flies with vinegar.

Take heart: with your dad's track record you probably won't have to endure her for long. NTA