A woman has received backlash from her family after leaving her niece, who she had been forced into babysitting, with a friend of hers. The person penned an anonymous Reddit post to explain that she is the aunt of a one-year-old and is one of the few family members to live close by so was always usually happy to babysit.
However, on one occasion she had been asked to babysit three weeks out from the day to which she accepted provisionally so long as her plans did not change.
But when her plans changed and she tried to cancel, things got tricky when her sibling dropped off the child anyway.
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She said: "My plans changed however when some of my old college friends told me they were stopping by my town on Friday. I haven't seen them in nearly three years and really wanted to see them.
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"I gave my sister five days notice that I could no longer babysit on Friday, and that she should make other arrangements. She didn't respond to the text, but she read it, so I assumed it was OK."
However, on the day the aunt was surprised to see that her sister was dropping her niece off at the house, despite knowing her sister could no longer babysit.
"I was confused and asked why she was here, she told me she was leaving her daughter with me as originally planned. I said again I was busy, she replied that family is more important than my 'silly college friends' and I should step up to my responsibility as an aunt," wrote the author.
Before being able to argue back, her sister had left the house and had left her one-year-old with her.
She continued: "I tried to call her after she left but she had her phone off and none of my calls went through."
Not wanting to cancel her plans, or leave a one-year-old alone, she decided to call a close friend of hers who does a lot of babysitting for extra money.
"She is good with kids and does baby sitting as a side hustle. I called her and explained the situation, even offering to pay her to look after my niece," claimed the author.
"But she was understanding and said she'd do it for free. I thanked her profusely and dropped my niece off."
The author then texted her sister to say where the baby had been left while she went to visit friends, but her sister was less than impressed.
"My sister didn't respond immediately but after about two hours she started spamming my phone. I turned my phone off, as I was already out by that point anyway," stated the author.
"They picked up the niece later that evening and she was perfectly happy, however my sister and brother-in-law are furious at me for 'dumping my niece with a stranger' (even though they know she is a trusted friend of mine.)"
The author has since had a slew of messages from wider family condemning her actions.
However, many Redditors jumped to her defence with one saying: "Yes, your sister asked you three weeks in advance, but five days is plenty of warning that you wanted to change plans."
While another commented: "No responsible parent shuts their phone off when their child is in someone else's care. It doesn't matter what your plans were, whether with your 'silly college friends' or not. You gave her ample notice."
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