A Reddit user named u/FarPride841 shared her experience on the Am I The [Jerk] forum.
She was unaware that she was expected to babysit her relatives' children while her family spent time on a cruise ship.
She was unhappy that they hadn’t bothered to consult her and decided to teach her family a lesson in mutual understanding and respect, which resulted in, well, drama.
‘’My aunt is retiring. She's made plans to go on a cruise, a 3-day stay in Hawaii, and then back. All her adult children are going. They invited our side of the family, nobody told me. I'm not on fb which is the only place they communicate. They have my number, no one asked me though,’’ she wrote.
To add salt to the wound, her entire family made elaborate plans for the holiday, booked accommodation, bought tickets – the whole shebang – but conveniently forgot to include her. Is she the black sheep of the family? The messy cousin that no one wants to be around? Is she a ticking time bomb waiting to explode? Because what in the Mean Girls nonsense is this?
She eventually brought the aunt’s upcoming cruise to the family a week before, and asked if they should get her a gift. Her sister said yes and suggested they give it to her during the cruise.
‘’This is the first I'm hearing about them going. They said they assumed I was staying to watch the babies for them – my cousin's 3-year-old, my sister's 2-year-old, and twin infants.”
The joke was on them, however, because she declined. ‘’I feel like they didn't tell me specifically so I'd be the only person not going and they could try to force all the kids on me. Well, I told them no thanks. I told them I still had time to book accommodation and come too and I would like to go.’’
She gave her family the benefit of the doubt but the truth always comes out. The cousin organising the trip told her there was no space left for her on the cruise, but she could come to Hawaii if she found her own accommodation and childcare. Yeah, no.
‘’So since I already had the time off, my bf and adult son and I decided to take our own vacation. We all packed up the day before my family left and took off for a week-long vacation states away. I purposely didn't tell anybody.’’ Sounds about right.
Her family wasn’t happy about her choice and was left ‘’stranded’’ and angry. She distanced herself from their drama, refusing to answer their calls or messages and focused on enjoying her own holiday.
The family criticised her for not being a team player, and the cousin even threatened to call the police, accusing her of child abandonment.
She defended herself, pointing out that assuming someone would babysit their kids without even asking was not cool.
Rough.
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