Babysitters routinely share their horror stories from their less than favorable babysitting experiences.
But this time, we get to hear from the other perspective, one in which a 16-year-old shared how he was inconvenienced by someone who was hired to look after him and his 13-year-old brother.
Redditor ResentfulKid05 is a male teen who visited the “Am I the a**hole?” (ATIA) subReddit after causing some drama.
He asked:
“AITA for ignoring my babysitter’s rules?”
The Original Poster (OP) wrote:
“My parents just left to go on vacation yesterday morning. For whatever reason, they decided to get a babysitter for me and my little brother for the next three days.”
“I sort of get why they did it, but it just feels insulting to have someone babysit me at my age. I was cordial to her at first, but then she announced her rules.”
“I can’t leave the house or cook anything without telling her, I have to be in bed by 10, and I can’t stay home alone at all, meaning that if she wants to take my little brother somewhere, I have to come along.”
“I told her ‘no’, but she said that she would contact my parents if I didn’t do what she said.”
“Last night, I stayed up late, and when she came to tell me to go to bed, I just locked my door.”
“Early this morning, I got up and made pancakes, and when she woke up she started yelling at me for not following the rules.”
“She called my parents, who told me to just listen to her, but I told them this was dumb. I locked myself in my room for the next few hours, refusing to come along with my brother and the babysitter to watch a movie.”
“They had to stay home, which she and my parents blamed on me. AITA for ignoring her rules?”
Strangers on the internet were asked to declare one of the following:
- NTA – Not the A**hole
- YTA – You’re the A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everybody Sucks Here
When a Redditor asked what the parents’ rules were and if the sitter’s rules were agreed upon with them beforehand, the OP said:
“I’m allowed to stay up as late as I want, make whatever food I want, leave the house whenever I want, and stay home alone for up to 24 hours when my parents are around.”
“I do not know whehter or not the rules were cleared with my parents beforehand.”
Many Redditors weighed in with their thoughts, mostly being in favor of the OP.
“You’re NTA for being inconvenienced by those rules, for sure. And your parents should have established the rules, with you and the sitter, before they left.”
“However you are still young and under the sitter’s responsibility for the time being… I would advise to play the mature card and follow the rules, after all three days isn’t that long.”
“Maybe talking it over with your parents when you can could be a way to ease up your anger and understand their reasoning.” – Ravens_or_eagles
“NTA – the baby sitter is for treating you like a child and not a teenager, and your parents are for not talking to this woman about what the house rules should be.”
“All these people saying ‘yOuR a MinOr, YoU hAvE tO LiStEn tO hEr’ are out of their minds. A 17 year- old is also a minor, but you don’t treat a 17 year-old the same way you’d treat a 9 year-old.”
“There’s reasonable expectations for how you to govern minors of different age groups, and this was not that.”
“Telling a 16 year-old to be in bed by 10, not to cook without guidance, or not to be alone in their own home is lunacy, especially if those are not normal restrictions for that teenager.” – DogsAreMyDawgs
“While I applaud the parents for not expecting OP babysit his younger brother, they should have made it clear that the babysitter was for the younger lad, not for OP and he wasn’t bound by the sitter’s rules.”
“OP is NTA for ignoring the rules, but his parents are AH for not having a strong word with the sitter once they knew there was a problem, or for originally directing the sitter to enforce those rules. The sitter needs to wake up to reality.” – Far_Administration41
“NTA. Those rules are excessive for a 16 year old. Sounds like your parents should have set the rules before they left.” – oregondude79
“i think NTA. yeah you’re a minor but you’re 16 and you definitely sound old enough to stay up past 10 or make pancakes alone like wtf dude.” – wallyboardwithwheel
“NTA – Everyone saying otherwise is full of sh*t. Parents aren’t always right (don’t take that to mean they never are lol) but the bedtime thing especially is super disrespectful.”
“You’re old enough to drive a car and go out on your own and godforbid cook a simple meal for yourself.”
“It might be more convenient for everyone if you just go along with it but its probably VERY inconvenient for you as an individual to do so. I say do what you normally do, just be as responsible as normal and that’s that.”
“Assuming you don’t actually burn the house down or get kidnapped like the babysitters afraid you will then everything should be fine lol.” – OwlShield
“NTA. Hmmmm. I get why you’re frustrated, but your parents did the right thing in hiring a responsible adult.”
“Leaving two minor teens home alone for three days is the kind of things social services gets involved with especially if something goes left handed.”
“So this stranger has been entrusted with your and your sibling’s care, and given that she was apparently given no framework at all, her rules make sense. She doesn’t know anything about you. Maybe you’re a wee little arsonist :-)”
“The only real a**holes here were your parents for not sitting down with the hired carer and making it explicitly clear what the house rules were and what you are allowed/not allowed to do.”
“I was about your age and my sister was about your sibling’s age when my parents did something similar, only they had our grandparents come down.”
“Grandad got drunk and fell in the bathroom and got stuck behind the toilet. Grandma got her car stuck in the driveway. Grandad started a small fire when he fell asleep with a lit cigarette. My sister and I listened in rapt horror while Grandma told racist jokes.”
“it was….an experience.” – PrimishDirective
Overall, Redditors thought the OP was not the a**hole in the situation and believed the parents should have established better communication with the sitter about house rules before they left.