Man Wants to Know if He’s a Jerk for Refusing to Babysit for His Sister

Do you have a person in your family or in your friend group who is always hitting you up at the last minute and asking for favors that are pretty inconvenient?

It can be a major headache…and sometimes, saying no can make things complicated.

And today’s story from Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole?” page is a real doozy because it involves a guy and his sister.

Is he a jerk?

Let’s take a look…

AITA for refusing to babysit for my sister despite BIL having a family emergency?

“I, (37M) and my wife, (33F) have no children. We live in a small, two bedroom house with the second bedroom converted into a game room / “office” for us.

My sister (32F) and BIL (35M) have two kids, nephew (8M) and niece (9F). Both are great kids, love them and would do anything for them. We’ve babysat for my sis and BIL before and had no issues until recently.

On April 7th, Good Friday; BIL got a call that his sister (28F) was in a near fatal car accident along with two of her friends. She had to be airlifted to the hospital. They weren’t sure if she was going to make it so family members were being called in to say goodbye and support the rest of the family.

This happened across the state we live in. Sis texted me around 10:40ish that night, asking if I was awake then called to explain the situation. She then asked if I would babysit the kids over Easter weekend while they travelled across state to be with BIL’s family.

I told her no, I couldn’t. I work in a steel manufacturing plant (she knows this) on a rotary shift and after Easter, on Monday; I would be starting the overnight shifts. I told her that I was going to sleep during the day on Saturday and Sunday to get accustomed to being on third shift.

When she asked if my wife would be willing, I again told her no; since she’s going to be doing Easter stuff with her side of the family. When she asked why I couldn’t just sleep in on Sunday or why couldn’t my wife take the kids with her to the Easter stuff; I snapped back at her that I gave her three reasons why.

That one, I wanted the weekend to adjust my shift in sleeping schedules and couldn’t do that in one day. Two, my wife wanted to spend Easter with her side of the family. And finally, that no is a complete sentence and that’s final.

She got p**sed. Said we’ll talk later and hung up. They took the kids and on the way, sis texted me that I’m an a**hole for not taking their tragedy to heart. For not helping them in their time of need. That “it wouldn’t have killed me or my wife to miss a day of sleep or take the kids with her.

And BIL is p**sed at us. He prays we don’t have an emergency and need him cause he’ll say “no” and he’ll want “to sleep in.” I haven’t responded and we’re currently not speaking to each other.

Going to add: when sis called, my wife was asleep to get up early in the morning to do her family things. Our parents live in another state. Our other brother lives in another country. I don’t know why she didn’t call any of their friends when I refused.

So am I the a**hole for not babysitting my sis’s kids in their time of need?”