Looking after children is basically a job. Indeed, for many a babysitter and nanny, it is literally what puts food on the table. Statistics show that the more children one adds to the “job,” the higher the prices go, that’s just the way of the world.

So when she was asked to babysit 16 whole kids for free, one teenager, naturally, declined, then was shocked to find herself on the receiving end of insults and yelling from their particularly entitled parents. So she stood her ground, got her immediate family involved and the drama grew. We got in touch with Itchy_Knowledge2328 to find out more.

Babysitting an entire birthday party for free sounds like a task straight out of hell

Image credits: halfpoint (not the actual photo)

So one teen turned down such a gig, then found herself in the crosshairs of her extended family

Image credits: Liza Summer (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Zinkevych_D (not the actual photo)

OP gave readers an update on what happened next

Image credits: Askar Abayev (not the actual photo)

Image source: Itchy_Knowledge2328

Entitled adults often make very poor choices

Bored Panda got in touch with Itchy_Knowledge2328 and she was kind enough to provide some additional details. “I think that adults think they’re entitled to free labor by their teenage nieces and nephews and cousins and children is based on the way that they were raised. They have this urge to boss around and bully them because that either happened to them when they were a teenager. But I also think that some people just get used to you doing stuff for free for them but when you ask for money from them they get angry and entitled. That goes for anybody and everybody in the world. Change is very scary to the human species. Entitlement is something everybody shares. Whether you’re entitled in a good way or a bad way. It’s basically how you were raised. And how your social life is. And how you use your entitlement.”

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“Secondly, my family and I are not on really good terms right now. As soon as my mom headed back up to a different state bullying happened again right now I’m not talking to anybody in my family besides my mom my siblings and my grandma. They’re mostly mad that I blasted all of our problems on social media. All of their names were changed for privacy reasons but I did leave the first letter of their name the exact same. That’s kind of how they knew it was me plus all of the details. My mom is about fed up with her siblings and their spouses. And my aunt Kelly keeps on posting Facebook posts about me and saying some nasty stuff. Commenting on my weight, height, face shape everything you can imagine. I don’t really care what she says on Facebook because I don’t have a good relationship with her to even feel slightly hurt by it. But my Uncle Chris hurt me a lot and so did the rest of my family because I was super close to the rest of them. But they’re not too mad at me because I’m going to be watching some of my cousins this weekend while they all go out for a little night out on the town.”

Looking after multiple kids for free is not an activity most people are interested in

Just looking after a single kid is enough work. It’s no wonder many nations set up pretty expansive parental leave rules because otherwise having a child becomes an impossible mission. Probably the best-known examples of this are in Scandinavia, for example, Denmark, where new parents are given a whopping 52 weeks of leave to split between them, so both can be involved in raising the child. But even parents need a break, as in OP’s story, so the age-old solution is to hire a babysitter. But OP’s family seems to have gotten greedy and wanted a free babysitter. Now, the cost of living is tough these days, but looking after sixteen children, all going nuts at a birthday party is not a reasonable request.

For example, in the US, the average cost for a babysitter for one child, one hour, is $22.68, which is actually quite a lot more than many entry-level jobs. This number actually goes up roughly two more dollars for each subsequent child, but in most cases, a babysitter is not contending with more than three to four kids. A party is quite different, with more children, more activities, and, generally, sugar, creating a sort of frenzy among the kids that most people would prefer to not be in charge of. OP did make this clear to her extended family, but they seemed to believe that pulling a “we are family” card entitled them to free labor.

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It’s not actually bad to ask family for help, it is the original socially cohesive unit. But OP’s extended family’s reaction to her leaving is very telling. Instead of accepting a no, they verbally harassed and abused her, despite having no right to say and do what they did. It seems the responsibility of “family” only extended to OP looking after the birthday party, not being respected as an autonomous human being. Fortunately, she was not alone and other family members backed her up. Instead of trying to make a deal, the extended family threw a tantrum, behavior childish enough to warrant them perhaps having their own babysitters. But OP did the right thing by standing up for herself, a good backbone is an important skill to learn early.

Most readers sided with OP and were shocked at her family’s behavior

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