When an addition to the family arrives into this world, it’s a huge joy for not only its parents, but grandparents, aunts, and uncles as well. That’s why, even though it’s not their child, they love it with all their heart and are typically happy to spend time with the little one or babysit if need be.

This redditor was willing to babysit her sister’s kids, too, when the latter needed help, but that ended when her sibling accused the OP of stealing her wedding ring. Be that as it may, the mistrust regarding the ring didn’t stop the woman from asking her sister to babysit again.

Looking after nieces and nephews is a joy for many aunts and uncles

Image credits: Karolina Kaboompics / pexels (not the actual photo)

This woman refused to babysit her nieces and nephew when her sister accused her of stealing her wedding ring

Image credits: Jeremy Bishop / pexels (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Basic_Explorer9264

Many people turn to relatives for help with childcare

Image credits: Karolina Kaboompics / pexels (not the actual photo)

Few relationships have been made better by one person accusing the other one of stealing. So it’s no surprise that the OP was no longer willing to help her sister out with childcare after she made such type of accusations. And while the situation itself—someone asking a person to look after their kids after having just accused them of theft—isn’t a common one, people asking relatives for help with childcare – is.

According to data from 2022, roughly three-in-five parents living with a child under 17 years of age didn’t have any formal childcare; quite a few of them—close to 22%—relied heavily on their relatives to provide it.

Statistics reveal that relying on relatives or other trusted people with childcare was especially common during the pandemic. According to the RAPID Survey Project, before Covid hit, equal numbers of families were using center-based care (such as pre-schools, day care centers, or public pre-kindergartens, for instance) and home-based care (which typically entails paid or unpaid care by family, friend or neighbor—also known as FFN care—or care from a home-based provider).

The project revealed that when the pandemic started, the use of center-based care dropped from 29% to 4% of households, while the use of home-based care dropped from 28% to 17% in the same period. Since then, the latter has not only gotten back to the pre-pandemic levels, but rose above it.

There is no other relationship like the one between siblings

Image credits: mododeolhar / pexels (not the actual photo)

For those in need of help with childcare—or anything else in life, for that matter—their sibling is often the first person to come to mind (in cases when they’re not estranged and are relatively close). That’s because a sibling relationship is unlike any other relationship out there, based on an inexplicable need to tease and annoy them, as well as the strongest sense of care and protectiveness one can foster.

Referring to this phenomenon, a professor and chair of the Counseling and Higher Education department at Northern Illinois University, Dr. Suzanne Degges-White pointed out that some time ago, sibling relationships were described as “an intriguing combination of unquestioned loyalty that coexisted with potentially intense rivalry”. In a piece for Psychology Today, she explained that, “Siblings may unceasingly argue on shared ‘home turf,’ but jump to each other’s defense when out in the larger world.”

The expert continued to point out that, like most relationships, sibling relationships, too, are based on basic relational virtues, such as honesty, trust, loyalty, and support, and adding that siblings are often quick to offer support to their brothers and sisters.

In the OP’s case, there seemed to be an odd dynamic between the siblings, as her sister trusted her enough to ask her to babysit—to look after arguably the most precious thing in her world—but didn’t trust her word when the sister said she didn’t take her ring. Though, unlike the OP’s sibling, fellow netizens took the redditor’s side.

Fellow redditors shared their opinions in the comments, unlike her family, they didn’t think the OP was in the wrong

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