'AITA for being furious my 2 year old ended up in the ER on my sister's watch?'

"AITA for being furious my 2 year old ended up in the ER on my sister's watch?"

I (18f) have a 2 year old daughter who lives with me and her father (18m), but spends two day times a week with my mom so that I can run errands (such as going to the doctors, doing the food shopping, cleaning the house, etc) and because my mom loves to spend time with my daughter.

My 27 year old sister was visiting my mom's house for the week from out of town. My sister and I have never really got on, when I got pregnant she thought it was the worst thing ever, and insists that children ruin your life and thinks I force my daughter on my mom (despite my mom saying otherwise).

So, when I went to drop my daughter off with my mother at around 11am like usual, I was shocked to find my sister there alone. I asked her where my mom was, and she said my mother had gone to the shop and would be home within a few minutes.

My sister has always been very dismissive of me, she hates talking to me and will do anything to shorten the conversation, which is why I think this happened. I huffed because I was catching the bus into town to go the doctors, and it left in a few minutes.

My sister rolled her eyes. I asked her if there's any way she would have my daughter for a few minutes just until mom came back, she had just woken up from a nap (she always sleeps in her stroller) so she would be happy to just sit on the sofa and watch TV until mom came back. My sister said 'absolutely not, I hate children and I don't feel comfortable being alone with her'.

Now, I completely understood this and I think she was very clear in saying she didn't want to. I called mom on the doorstep and she said she was just leaving the store now, so she would be max five minutes. My sister rolled her eyes and said 'Fine, I'll take her', and she took the baby out of the stroller. I was in a rush and thought my sister would be able to cope for five minutes.

I didn't even think it would be a matter of 'coping' because it was such a short amount of time and the kid was tired. So I left, and went for the bus. Literally five minutes later I get a call from my mom that they're taking my kid to the ER because she cracked her head open on the living room table.

Apparently my sister had left the room for a couple minutes and my daughter wondered where she was going as she is never alone, so she tried to get off the sofa to follow her, and she slipped and whacked her head.

I am absolutely raging at my sister. I don't get how she could be so stupid to leave a kid alone. She argues that I 'emotionally manipulated' her into babysitting, which I feel I didn't. She says she thought it would be fine to leave the kid while she made a cup of coffee, but I feel like it's common sense not to leave a kid on their own for more than like two seconds. AITA?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

[deleted] said:

"My sister said 'absolutely not, I hate children and I don't feel comfortable being alone with her'." This makes YTA 100%, before the accident and after. I see you and others calling your sister stupid in other replies. I disagree.

You know what's stupid? Leaving your child with someone who literally says they don't want to be responsible for her. You forced your sister into taking responsibility so you could catch your bus. Plan better, you created this problem. Your mother messed up for not being there when you arrived as well.

KarmaG12 said:

You never leave your child alone at all, ever, and she’s two? You’re setting her and yourself up for serious case of separation anxiety in the future. It’s ridiculous that your sister is expected be attached at the hip to your child like that. YTA.

centuryblessings said:

So your sister hates kids. Your sister also doesn't seem to like you very much, and has openly expressed her contempt towards your pregnancy. Your sister also told you directly that she didn't feel comfortable being left with your daughter.

And yet you, the parent, still made the choice to leave your baby with someone you know you shouldn't trust with your baby. YTA. You You should have waited until your mom got back.

[deleted]

YTA. Your kid could have hurt themselves in a second regardless of who was there. And you are not doing your kid any favors by not giving them alone time. You are setting him/her up for major dependency issues.

Plus your sister made it abundantly clear that she was uncomfortable with and unsuited for child care. And it can come across as emotional manipulation depending on the tone and words you used when talking to your mother.

Finally, YTA for the way you are talking about your sister. Not everyone is an expert at child care without experience m. And unless you told her ‘don’t leave ____ alone for even a second’ she would not have known she couldn’t leave the kid on the sofa for a minute or two.

EducationalFeed9 OP responded:

Hey! Thanks for the view. This has been brought up a couple times now so I wanna explain a bit more. My kid has just turned 2. Where I'm from, you definitely do not leave a two year old unsupervised for any amount of time unless they are asleep or in some sort of pen.

I do understand why she may have felt pressured to take my kid, but I didn't think anyone of her age was dumb enough to leave a kid alone like that