A 17 year old girl who felt she was being taken advantage of by her family was finally able to stand up for herself. The girl has a 28 year old sister, who is married with two young children. Whenever her older sister and her two little kids visit, she is expected to babysit them without getting paid for it.
Sharing her experience on Reddit under the username No_Writing9686, the girl wrote that she recently graduated from college and her parents decided to celebrate by taking her on a trip to Disneyland.
When they arrived at the airport her sister and family were there. She realized her family had tricked her into being the unpaid babysitter on their vacation. Instead of causing a scene or getting upset, she came up with a clever plan.
She discreetly pulled out her passport from her backpack, hid it in her socks, and acted as if she had lost it. This meant that at the security checkpoint, she couldn’t pass through without proper identification and had to go back home.
Naturally, her family was really disappointed that their vacation plans had to change because of her actions. They even said that she ruined their trip. However, her dad said he understood her reasons and admitted he would have supported her if she had told him about her plan in advance.
The girl has no regrets about missing out on the vacation. She’s been to Disneyland before, and she knows she can always go again another time. But she does wonder if she went a little overboard.
The Reddit community were fully supportive of her actions. Many users commented that parents should never take advantage of their siblings by assuming they’ll be free babysitters. “Parents need to realize their siblings are not free nanny’s. It isn’t their sibling’s responsibility to offer any kind of child care,” Gramsknows commented.
Others expressed their disappointment with people who exploit family members for free babysitting. One user even pointed out that the girl was lied to about the trip being for her and that her family ruined their own vacation by trying to use her. “Your father shouldn’t have gone along with the lie, if he didn’t want to waste money,” added another.
It is not unusual for family members to have the expectation that siblings will assist with childcare, even if it inconveniences the individual being asked.
A woman facing a similar situation expressed her concerns about her sister on a parenting advice website. She mentioned that her sister never shows interest in her life and mostly complains about her husband’s lack of help and her need for a break. The woman gets frustrated as her sister always expects her to take care of her kids. The woman was advised to keep saying “no” to her sister’s demands and stick to her own plans.
What do you think? Did the girl do the right thing by pretending she had lost her passport?
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