Someone wise in the past once said that moderation is important in everything we do. After all, it's really so difficult to draw that fine line that separates, for example, persistence from annoyance, courage from recklessness, compassion from lack of will. Incidentally, the last example is especially relevant in today’s tale.
Yes, today we present to you a story about an older sister who blatantly misused her younger sis' responsiveness and compliance, essentially mistreating her badly. The younger sister endured for a year and a half, but sooner or later, any patience actually runs out...
More info: Reddit
Sometimes, when you sincerely want to help someone, they consider it like your weakness and gradually start treating you like a doormat
Image credits: namii9 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author of the post is 21 years old, she has a way older sister and 2 niblings, aged 6 and 2, whom she's been babysitting for a year and a half
Image credits: anon
Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The main issue here was that both the sister and her husband had been treating the author badly, calling her names, insulting her, and whatnot
Image credits: anon
Image credits: wirestock / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Nevertheless, the woman endured all this time and decided to quit only when this babysitting actually started to interfere with her studies
Image credits: anon
The sister got incredibly livid after hearing this and started accusing the author of literally all possible sins, so she just decided to seek support online
The Original poster (OP) says she is 21 years old and works part-time as a babysitter, specifically for her older sis. She’s now 37 years old and has two kids, aged 6 and 2, and the younger girl has a genetic disorder and a congenital heart defect. The girl has a G-tube, and thus, the auntie has to deal with regular therapies and medication while babysitting her.
The older kid doesn't cause any particular issues - he just needs to be dropped off and picked up from school, and just babysitting - like many other children. However, the author's main problem all these years has been the arrogant attitude of her sister and her spouse. Yes, they pay her money, but in addition to babysitting, the OP also does a lot of chores and whatnot.
Furthermore, the sis has repeatedly called her names, calling her lazy, useless, and numerous other insults. The OP has had to come on short notice more than once, dropping everything she was doing. But, to her credit, she only refused to come once - when the sis called her again at the last minute, when she and her boyfriend were already on their way to a family gathering with his parents.
So, the OP recently returned to study, and working for the sister was definitely interfering with this. So, when she called again and demanded that the author come over immediately, our heroine explained everything and said she wanted to end doing this job for her. In response, she was immediately accused of ingratitude, unpunctuality, and other sins, so the woman decided to seek some support online.
Image credits: benzoix / Freepik (not the actual photo)
"Basically, it would’ve been worthwhile to terminate everything after the first instances of offensive behavior on the part of the sister," says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment on this situation. "After all, babysitting is quite in demand, and there will always be clients."
However, according to the expert, two additional factors also come into play here. The first is the age difference, as elder sisters, who are more than a decade older, often act as maternal figures for younger ones. The second is a sincere desire to help her niblings and make life easier for a little girl with serious health issues.
"By and large, the older sister and her husband skillfully played on these two factors, as well as on this woman's conscientious attitude toward her duties. Moreover, she shouldn't have even apologized. The decision to end this job. Period. Nothing personal, just business - especially considering how she'd been treated all these years," Irina Matveeva sums up.
As for the people in the comments, almost all of them were genuinely outraged by the author's sister's behavior and ardently supported her decision to stop babysitting for her. Moreover, some responders even called on the woman to stop communicating with the sis at all for effectively treating her like a doormat. So do you, our dear readers, also agree with this point of view?
Most commenters backed up the author completely, even urging her to go no contact with sis and brother-in-law for mistreating her like this
