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We all know how hard getting childcare around work is, but would you ask your neighbour to watch both of your kids all day long?
That's what one desperate Mum has done after the Father of her kids moved out. However, the neighbour that she asked took to Reddits AITA board to ask if she was in the wrong for straight up refusing to do so.
Read the post below...
"Background info: My husband and I (late 20s M&F), have lived next to Jack and Jill for two years. We have a son who’s six years old, and they have two kids who are a similar age, but a little bit older. All the kids go to the same elementary school and I used to see Jack in the car rider line. Our neighborhood is relatively close to the school so the school bus does not pick up here, we have to walk or drive our kids to school.
Jack and Jill have constantly had loud fights ever since they moved here. And by fights I mostly mean Jill would scream at jack and kick him out the house on a weekly basis. Normally he would sleep in his car and come back inside in the morning after she leaves for work. Jill works as a CNA at a nearby hospital, the 6am-6pm shift. Jack worked from home, like I do, which let him take the kids to school.
Well, after this last fight jack packed up all his stuff and left, flew back home to his mother in a different country. Jill recently came to me saying that she has no one to watch her kids from roughly 5 am to 7 pm.
She asked if she could send them over in the morning, have me watch them and feed them breakfast and then take them to school. And then later pick them up and feed them dinner and watch them till she gets off work. I explained to her that being expected to be a second parent basically to two kids is not something I’m really interested in. I asked how much she was willing to pay and she said she EXPECTED me to do it for free, since she has no friends and no one else to ask. She also asked if I would watch them on the weekends so she could pick up extra shifts, otherwise she won’t be able to pay the rent.
I told her absolutely not, and that she’s insane basically to think I’d agree to something so unreasonable when we aren’t even friends and our kids aren’t friends either.
My husband thinks I was an asshole, and that we could offer to at least help sometimes for the kids sake. My stance is that we both know she wouldn’t do the same for us if the roles were reversed, since Jill isn’t really a nice person.
AITA for not helping my neighbor with her kids after her husband left?"
Find the main thread here on Reddit
What was the general consensus?
It's pretty safe to say the poster was voted NTA (Not The Asshole). However, the nightbour and her runaway husband weren't so nicely judged.
"NTA - this is quite an extensive and unreasonable expectation. It's not even her asking you for help, it's her expecting you to pick up her slack.
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5a-7a Monday-Friday (with breakfast and transportation)
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3p-7p Monday-Friday (with snack, dinner, and transportation)
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weekends as needed
And let's not forget, it's about time for summer break. So you'd what, have to provide full daycare while she works?
She needs to come up with a plan on her own that does not involve forcing neighbors to parent her children."
While another commentator said: "NTA.... Stay far away from this women. The audacity... The entitlement is mind boggling. You can offer help as in being over a meatloaf here and there so the got something to eat. NOT fulltime free babysitting for her kids... She'll latch on and never let go."
Our Verdit...
We are all for helping a neighbour in need, but we think what this Mum was asking of her fellow neighbour was way too much! As many have said on the board, it is the Mum and Dads responsibility for sorting childcare out for both of the kids, you can't burden a neighbour with that task! Both neighbours didn't even appear to have a relationship prior to this request either. So essentially it would be like leaving your child with a total stranger. We hope this Mum has managed to sort it all out the right way.
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