Recently, I have been writing a lot of stories about how people expect babysitting favors from their family. While some are willing, a few are just forced to do it, as the only other option they have is to leave the house for good.
Let’s face it, not everyone can afford to do that, and even this woman is one of them. Her mom’s boyfriend kept dumping his two kids on her while he slept and lazed around. She finally snapped and told her mother that they had better start paying her. Scroll down to find out what happened next!
More info: Reddit
It's really sad when children end up in dysfunctional families, which adversely impact their lives
Image credits: cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The 19-year-old poster moved back with her mom and helped out by babysitting her boyfriend's kids when they went to work
Image credits: Left_Yak4688
Image credits: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA / Pexels (not the actual photo)
However, she was annoyed when she had to babysit even when the dad was home, as he just slept off and barely paid attention to his own children
Image credits: Left_Yak4688
Image credits: Hrant Khachatryan / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Finally, she snapped after he left the kids to carve pumpkins with her to sleep, so she told her mom that she wanted to be paid for all the babysitting
Image credits: Left_Yak4688
Now, her mother instructed her to tell the kids to wake up their father if they came asking for anything, but she still planned to leave the house in February
Today, we dive into the life of the 19-year-old original poster (OP) who moved back with her mom, as she couldn’t afford her own place. The thing is, her mother’s boyfriend (M) has five kids, out of which one stays with them, while two are over for four days every week. She didn’t mind looking after the kids when the couple was at work, so she helped them out occasionally.
However, M is a lazy dad who prefers sleeping whenever he is not working. That’s why there were times when he was at home, yet OP ended up babysitting the children. The final straw was when the kids wanted to carve pumpkins with their dad, but he just started on his first, and immediately stopped to go and sleep. Well, the poster just couldn’t take it anymore.
After her mom came home from work, she told her that they had better start paying her for all the babysitting she was doing, or she wouldn’t do it at all. To make matters worse, after M woke up, he yelled at OP because there was still a bowl of pumpkin guts in the garage. What’s absurd is that he also yelled at his 6-year-old child because she “finished her homework”. That’s so weird!
Still, the poster felt like a jerk for saying that she won’t take care of the kids, so she vented online, but Redditors sided with her. She soon updated that she intended to stick with her “no babysitting” plan and try to move out of the toxic house by February. Besides, her mother also instructed her to tell the kids to “wake up their dad” if they came to her for anything.
Image credits: Polina Zimmerman / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Data shows that the average hourly rate for a babysitter in 2024 was $23.61 for one child and $26.57 for two kids in the US. Meanwhile, the poster is wasting her time looking after M’s kids while he sleeps, so she deserves to be compensated for it. Also, as she said, she didn’t sign up to be the children’s mom, as it was her mother’s decision to be with such a deadbeat guy.
A lot of netizens were worried about the kids having such a toxic dad. Even experts stress that children who grow up without positive father figures are more likely to engage in delinquency, substance use, and experience educational difficulties. They may also struggle with low self-esteem and unhealthy relationships, or seek validation and love in inappropriate ways.
As if having such a father is not enough, the kids’ mom is dating a physically violent criminal. Ugh, I shudder to think what these kids might be going through every day. Research shows that children who grow up in dysfunctional families are at risk of developing mental illness, which, if not treated, can result in long-term mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
This just makes me wonder why people have kids in the first place if they are going to end up ruining their lives anyway. The poster is also sick of being caught in the middle of all this mess, and many people questioned her mother’s behavior for bringing this on herself, too. Well, I hope OP can save up quickly and try to get out of the place at the earliest.
Don’t you think so, too? Drop down your thoughts in the comments below!
Folks online were quite verbal in expressing how they felt about the dad, and many also called out her mom for being with him
