Girl Asks If She's Wrong To Tell Her Mom That Her Baby Sisters Are Not Her Responsibility

Their mom expects OP and her other teen sister to look after the little ones whenever she's "busy."

Liezel

• Published in Interesting
• December 27, 2022

Ever since the dawn of time, if you had siblings, you were always expected to look after one another because that's what family does. You look after them, and they look after you.

That's how it has gone and is how we're still taught today.

The responsibility is even heavier if you're the older kid. You're expected to almost co-parent with your parents and help them deal with the little ones, especially when your parents are busy working or doing other things.

However, there is also a limit to these responsibilities given that you're a child of your parents too. While filial responsibility does expect you to help out, it should be completely voluntary and not something your parents should force on you.

Remember, they're the parents, not you. And even if you willingly help out, parents should also realize that you're allowed to live the life appropriate for your age.

As it seems, that's not something the mom of Redditor Confusion_always realizes. She's always tasking her teen daughters to look after their baby sisters, and when they so much as say that they're tired, she rains them with harsh reprimanding and insults.

After one argument, OP tells her mom that her sisters aren't her responsibility and her mom goes ballistic. Now, OP doesn't know if she was right or wrong to say it.

Here's the whole story.

OP asks:

It all started when the family went out to eat for dinner and the teen girls were asked to look after their twin baby sisters

After the younger teen mentions that she's tired, their mom lectures them and tells them they have no right to say they're tired

Losing her cool, OP tells their mom that her sisters aren't her responsibility

We think that there is perfectly nothing wrong with OP's statement. It's facts.

She's not the parent of her sisters and technically, it's the parent's primary responsibility to take care of the kids, not the older kids. The older kids can help out with the younger ones but the primary responsibility still lies on the parents.

This is something their mom might have forgotten. It's tiring being a parent, yes, but it's also unfair to expect your older kids to take a huge cut of their work for them.

As it seems, people in the comments section also agree. Here are the top comments.

1. It should be OP's choice to help out and she shouldn't be forced into it

2. If the mom is busy, she should hire a babysitter rather than using her older kids as free ones

3. Just because they're older doesn't mean that they should immediately share their parent's burden

4. Maybe it would be way better that way

5. Not your kid, not your responsibility.

6. It seems like the mom is pushing her unwanted responsibilities onto her older children

7. Their mother's reaction to them saying how they felt was just toxic

8. She's basically making them work as free babysitters

9. No more free babysitting

10. Their mom isn't creating a healthy relationship with them

11. When you have kids, whether accidentally or not, you should know that they're your full responsibility and should be prepared to take it on

12. And parents wonder what they did wrong

13. The mom was just upset at hearing the truth

14. A better solution for everyone

15. OP was just telling facts

16. OP is still a child and should not be responsible for raising other kids

17. It's a shame she can't leave immediately

18. The mom still clearly needs her older kids

19. Their mom should learn to be a proper parents and stand by her actions

20. Maybe their mom would learn to do her job the right way this way

OP's mom should realize that OP herself is still a child that needs the love and guidance of a parent and that she shouldn't be forced to be raising other kids. She should also be treated equally and be allowed to live out her teen years the way she should.

If not, OP wouldn't grow any closer to her mom, and the first chance she gets to break free, she would definitely do it and might not even come back ever to her mom. And in the end, it would be the mom's fault.

What do you think? Was OP right or wrong?

Liezel