Woman asks sister living rent-free to babysit, gets accused of 'abusing' her position.

Sibling relationships are delicate structures that involve equal doses of care, tough love, and the occasional fight. As with all family conflicts, a simmering sibling fight can quickly seep out to other family members, pulling them into the force field of opinions and 'picking a side.'

Luckily, the family doesn't have to be the judge and jury, not when the AITA subreddit is waiting with baited breath for conflicts to assess.

In one popular post, a woman asked if she's wrong for making her younger sister watch her baby.

She wrote:

AITA for making my younger sister watch my baby?

I (24f) have my own apartment. My fiancé is deployed and I have a 1-year-old son. My younger sister Ella(18) lives with me. She pays no rent, and goes to the nearby college. She has no job and I financially support her since she is in school.

Our parents live 3 hours away so it was a better fit. I work 5 days a week, and my son is in daycare. I got called in on a Saturday (I’m off weekends and the daycare is closed weekends) and I pleaded with my sister to watch my son.

She refused, and told me it was her weekend off from school and she had a lot of studying to do. I told her I really needed her to do this for me, I never ask her. She told me I should just find a sitter online.

I told her no, you need to watch him, I take care of you and you can do this one thing for me, or you can go back and live with our parents. She got really upset and said I’m throwing what I do for her in her face, and how she’s an adult and my son wasn’t her kid. She did agree though and I went to work.

While I was on break I checked my phone and had numerous text from my parents saying I was abusing my power over my sister, and that my son wasn’t her responsibility. I never ever ask my sister for help with the baby. She lives with me so she’s able to go to the school she wanted to go to.

People quickly gave their two cents on the situation.

Popular_Error3691 wrote:

NTA. I love the people saying 'but the agreement' to what? Not pay any bills and not contribute? The sister can do one f**king thing in the home. It would be more if she was freeloading off me.

Mysterious_Bridge_61 wrote:

NTA. She is living with you for free. This was an exceptional circumstance. Like if the plumbing needing to be fixed and you asked her to stay home to let the plumber in. If she is going to live with you, you might occasionally ask her for a favor.

Friends, sisters and roommates to that. You literally opened your home and let her live for free. You thought she would treat you like a friend/sister in return. You thought if you needed her help she would try to help.

It’s time to ask her to leave, or have her sign a rental agreement to contribute by cleaning or babysitting. However, I don’t think I would forgive her churlishness easily. I would expect my siblings (I have 5 of them) to actually care about me.

plutodapimp wrote:

NTA. I don't get the people saying OP is actually. The sister lives there rent-free with no responsibilities other than school, they are able to live financially free because of OP. Asking her to watch the kid once is not outrageous given it was for OP to get to work and she likely needs the money with the extra adult to feed and house.

IMO_Jr wrote:

Being petty, I’d text your parents back that it seems she's their daughter and it’s not your responsibility to be financially supporting her. Therefore they can have her back.

If my sister asked for help only on one day, I would probably rearrange my schedule if I could, but you can’t force her to.

Clearly, OP is completely within her rights to ask her sister for babysitting help. And her younger sister is being entitled and hypocritical.