Is This Aunt A Jerk For Not Taking Her Nieces And To Disneyland?

Disney might be the happiest place on earth, but I’ve got to say, the money you have to spend to enjoy your time there isn’t putting a smile on anyone’s face. Parents save up for years, take their time planning, and yearn to be along to see the smiles it puts on their kids faces when they really soak in the magic for the very first time.

This woman is happily child-free, and is getting back on her feet emotionally and financially on her feet after an abusive childhood, a bad marriage, and her mother’s death.

Long back story. My brother and I have had a strained relationship our whole lives. We come from a really abusive home. Our mom was amazing but we were all horribly abused by our dad she couldn’t/wouldn’t leave.

When I was 17 I moved out of state and had very little contact with anyone outside of my mom.

My mom ended up being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and fought really hard for 8 years. I would fly in to visit her every few months as I could.

I ended up married to a really horrible and abusive man. He ended up having a heart attack and had to have a quad bypass. He was HORRIBLE to care for and just got more and more cruel.

3 months after his heart attack my moms health turned for the worst and she passed.

Her mother left her a bit of money so she left her husband, filed for divorce, and thought she would take some time off and possibly spend some time reconnecting with her estranged brother.

Our dad was HORRIBLE to us, going as far as to try to sue us for some money our mom left us.

After the funeral my husband got more and more abusive and I took the money she had left me and filed for divorce. I decided I needed some me time so I decided to go spend some time at Disneyland and visiting family in the area.

She was shocked to find out that her brother and his wife assumed should would babysit their daughters the entire week while they worked.

They were both upset at the conversation.

My brother told me I was stupid for getting a hotel and I should stay with him and his family. He has 2 girls, 5 and 8 that I have only met twice.

When i get there I was shocked that him and his wife were planning to go to work and leave the kids with me. I am NOT good with kids. I don’t dislike them, I just am uncomfortable being responsible for them. The entire family KNOWS this very well. I have been like that since I was a kid. I am happily child free. I told him I wasn’t here to be daycare for his kids.

He got upset because he had already told our aunt she didn’t need to watch them that week. I was irritated that he hadn’t even asked me about this.

OP told her brother that she wasn’t up for babysitting, that she wanted to unwind and spend some time at “the parks” – not saying the name deliberately in front of children – and that she would just go and stay closer.

I told him that I wasn’t planning on being available to sit at his house watching his kids while they worked and reminded him I was planning to spend a few days at “the park” which is a few hours away.

I may be bad with kids, but I know better than to even MENTION Disneyland around them.

He told her this was silly, and if she stayed with them and drove up for the day she could take the girls.

He asked his young daughters in front of her whether or not they wanted to go to Disneyland with their aunt.

Later that night he tells me it is stupid to pay for a hotel by the park, I should just drive up for the day, then I can take the girls! Without missing a beat he asks them if they want to go spend the day with their aunt at Disneyland.The response is what you would expect.

She booked it out of there, refusing to do it, and tried her best to enjoy her solo time at Disney as planned.

I was floored. I told them I had to go home and I couldn’t go. I grabbed my stuff and drove up and found a hotel close to the park. I spent 4 days bouncing between parks, ordering room service, going to the pool, spa and bar and a few times just drowned my sorrows alone in the hotel room.

Her family thinks she’s being awful, but OP isn’t sure what, if anything, she really did wrong.

My phone blew up with family (who I haven’t been close to in over a decade) telling me how awful I was and how much I had upset the girls, my brother and his wife. That they were all grieving too and I was being selfish.

So AITA for not taking them with me?

What does Reddit think? Let’s find out!

It seems like she might have been right to distance herself from her brother in the first place.