Family members help one another out in time of need, but sometimes that can get complicated. Just ask one aunt who was babysitting her niece and nephew while their parents were going through a divorce. All was going well until her sister accused her daughter of stealing a doll. Turns out the girl didn’t and the sister has yet to apologize for the incident.
The wronged sister is refusing to babysit until she gets an apology. She decided to check in with Reddit to see if she was being too harsh. She was sure to mention that her niece was innocent in all of this.
Sisters are always there for each other in hard times.
The sister was happy to help out. “Basically I (39F) was helping my sister Claire (38) with her kids 9M and 5F cos she’s going through a nasty split with their dad,” she explained. “They go to the same school as my kid, 6F and I work flexibly and from home so it was easy to pick the kids up and watch them for a few hours.”
Claire crossed the line.
Things did not stay calm and peaceful for long. “I was always paid for my time as was my husband who helped but i quit after Claire accused my kid of stealing,” she continued. “She said with no evidence or anything that since her daughter’s favourite doll was missing, it was obvious my daughter had stolen it since it was last at my house. I asked my daughter, she said no and I believed her. She said she saw my niece leave with it and I believed her. I even searched my whole damn house and couldn’t find it. I told my sister all this and she said that my daughter is a liar and a thief and that I’m enabling her and she expects me to pay for a new doll. I was so angry and incensed that she was being so nasty and horrible that I just said to her ‘my daughter is no liar and thief and you know what? I’m done. Find someone else to babysit cos it certainly won’t be me and hung up.’”
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Can't things just return to normal now?
Well, it turns out that Claire found the doll. She wants things to go back to the way they were but has not yet offered an apology for her bad behavior. The OP learned that Claire is anxious about what to do for child care now that OP is not watching the kids.
The grandparents get involved.
The sisters' parents are unfortunately stuck in the middle but they are kind of siding with Claire. “My parents think I am screwing her over by not helping and that she made an honest mistake and is just stressed and everything due to her marriage split,” the OP explained. “They have said that perhaps I should take the higher ground and move on from this and don’t seem to understand that my kid was accused of something she didn’t do. I see it as I don’t care if she’s s—-y to me, but definitely if it’s about my kid and she hasn’t once said sorry for accusing my six year old daughter of being a thief. She disrespected my kid and no amount of bad situation or stress is preventing her from saying sorry and smoothing things over.”
The sister feels disrespected.
At the end of the day, the sister feels wronged and just wants an apology. “I quit babysitting because she was rude, nasty and bitter and is expecting things to go back to normal just cos she found the doll. She isn’t admitting she messed up and I would be happy to babysit again but ONLY if she sincerely apologised, but she isn’t so here we are,” she concluded. She wants some outsiders’ opinions on the situation.
Apologies are never a bad thing.
The forum was overwhelming on the “striking from babysitting” sister’s side.
“Your sister has yet to apologize for calling your daughter a liar and a thief without evidence,” noted one user. "Not even after she found the doll, therefore evidence of your daughter's innocence…Why do people always put pressure to be the 'bigger man/woman' on the wronged party."
Respect is also a good thing.
Another user agreed.
"What did she think was going to happen when she accused a 6 year old of being a thief and liar with no evidence?" wondered one user. "This is a great lesson of 'don’t bite the hand the feeds you.'"
There is hope for the future.
Some users on the forum are holding out hope that the sister will eventually see the error of her ways. Until then, they urged the OP to stand strong in her decision not to babysit. Let’s hope these sisters will see eye to eye again soon.
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