When you have a close family member or friend with children, you are typically asked to care for them for a short period of time. However, certain persons may be unsuitable for the role. In these instances, things can quickly become ugly. In our case, Reddit members were divided over whether the original poster was correct or not. My sister and I live in the same city, but our parents relocated to another nation to retire. They flew us out on their anniversary. Our parents bought us all tickets for the same flight.

My sister has two children: a six-month-old and a five-year-old. She is currently split from her husband, so she would have to manage two children alone on a 10-hour flight. Or so I thought.

She contacts me a week before a flight we took together and wants me to babysit her kids in the middle of the journey, along with something about taking shifts so we can both sleep. I responded ‘no’ since I wasn’t comfortable with that, but she said, “Nephew loves you so much,” so we could work something out on the flight and hung up.
I was angry. I did not sign up for in-flight babysitting. I requested an upgrade to first class to avoid her. The upgrade cost me $50 out of pocket, with the remainder paid by frequent flyer miles, and the money was well spent to be able to sleep.

I get to the airport, check in, and wait about for my sister to arrive. When my sister realized we wouldn’t be sitting together, she freaked. She began to lecture me on the value of family. She continues to send me small screenshots of how important family is and how we should care about them.

I mean, the only reason I upgraded was because she wanted me to babysit. And I didn’t tell her. And for those who claimed I didn’t tell her I didn’t want to do it, I did. I told her over the phone that I didn’t want to do it.

She has a history of abandoning her children with me, and I didn’t want to spend 10 hours on a plane with them, just to spend another week with them in a strange country, where I babysat them while she went touring for “me time”.