One father is asking Reddit’s popular Am I The Asshole thread to get advice on his teen son after he asked him to babysit his younger sister. Needless to say, the entire ordeal did not go well and he wonders if he is the “bad guy.”
“so I don’t know if I’m really the asshole here or not, but by how my sons acting, I might as well be, wanting to see unbiased opinions on this,” the OP (original poster) begins.
“I’m 34m am a single parent to my two kids 18m and 11f. I have a meeting coming up this Saturday that required me to be out for the whole day in a city about an hour away. my usual babysitter isn’t able to make it that day since she has prior commitments, I contacted the list she gave me for people who she can trust, no one available. I contacted my friends and yep – none were available, and I don’t interact with family due to other unrelated reasons so that’s not an option either.”
“My son has never babysat my daughter, and that’s okay. so I asked him if he’d be willing to babysit 11f, I even offered him $100 since I’d be gone for about 6 hours that day. all he had to do was make sure 11f is safe and feed her lunch which I was planning on just ordering from my phone to my home (man… technologies great). so all he had to do was get it from the front door.”
“He refused. I thought it was a pretty solid deal, but I guess not. but all good, the meeting was cancelled anyways and was booked on zoom instead, why was it not originally – I’ll never know.”
“Today he came knocking on my office door and asked me for some money so he could take his girlfriend out on a date (he doesn’t have a job) – I thought to myself that it’s been a while since I had a day for myself, maybe I’ll go fishing. so I offered the same exact deal, $100 to look after 11f for the day, otherwise – no money.”
“He started tripping out saying “that’s not fair to me” “you’re a horrible parent” “this is parentification” “she’s not my responsibility” so on and so forth. so I said, well if you want money to take your girlfriend out, that’s how it’s going to be, he reluctantly accepted. but has since been audibly complaining to his friends online. 11f asked me why 18m doesn’t like her, which broke my heart (her bedrooms next to my office so she probably heard everything).”
“At this point, I may just take 11f out on Saturday – make it a nice father-daughter day, since my son is being such a drama llama currently.”
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One person said: “As someone who actually suffered this form of abuse as a child, it pisses me off that kid is accusing his dad of this just for offering $100 to babysit. No expectation, just an offer. My mom made it my job to cook dinner most nights when I was a kid lols, not to mention using me as her live-in child therapist– “Sorry mom idk if your bf is crazy and stole your shovel to get back at you?? im 12???”
While another commented: “Being the oldest kid of a new generation, I babysat my younger brother/cousins on a regular and there were a LOT of kids. I never got paid for a single one, so this sounds like a damn good deal to me.”
What do you think? Comment below!
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