Woman Asks If She Was Wrong For Not Taking Care Of Her Sister’s Sick Kids 2026

Reddit user Past_Marketing9257 is a child-free 22-year-old woman who does not like the idea of having kids and it is okay, this is her choice and it must be respected. She has an elder sister who has 5 kids. Because OP is child-free, she has never been interested in developing any form of relationship with her sister’s children.

One time OP’s sister, her husband, and all their five kids got norovirus. Her husband’s condition worsened and he had to be taken to the ER. So the sister called OP and requested if she could take care of her kids. OP simply rejected her request because she was not interested in being around kids, she had never babysat a kid before, and the kids were infected. She got called out by her sister and her own mother for being inconsiderate.

Not fully sure if what she did was right or not, OP decided to share the story on the infamous subreddit “Am I The A$$hole?“.

Scroll down below to read how it all went down.

1. The title makes OP sound like an AH but we must never judge a book by its cover.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

2. OP doesn’t seem to like the concept of kids. And that is why she has not developed any sort of links with her sister’s 5 kids.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

3. Oh boy, norovirus can be terrible. So terrible.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

4. Because the sister had to take her husband to the ER, she requested OP to take care of her 5 sick kids. And she simply got a rejection.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

5. OP did give some good alternative options that would have sorted things out but the sister didn’t want to go that way. There was a de*d lock.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

6. OP’s mother declared her an AH for not looking after her biological sister’s sick kids. But OP argued she would’ve done a terrible job at it because she had never babysat a single baby before.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

7. Ultimately the sister’s SIL took her husband to the ER while the sister took care of the kids.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

8. And in general, OP just didn’t want to help her because she never helped OP with her issues.

Via u/Past_Marketing9257

You see, just by reading the title it really did seem like OP was a proper AH who doesn’t even want to look after her own sister’s sick kids. Right? I mean, who does that to their own sister? But then, the story unfolded before us and I would definitely say OP was NTA.

For some reason, it seemed like the sister wanted a break from the kids and wanted to just shift all the responsibility on OP for a little while. But dude, those kids had norovirus. Any one of those kids could’ve met the same fate as their father. Had a situation arisen where one of the kids had to be taken to the ER as well, the sister would have 100% blamed OP for worsening that kid’s condition. Good for OP that she said no to taking care of the sick kids, they would’ve made her sick as well.

Here’s what the AITA community members had to say:

9. Exactly what I said, had the matter gotten worse, what would she have done then? And who would have her sister blamed for the issue?

Via MissMcFrostynips

10. This Redditor smelled general AH vibes from OP but for this specific situation, she was declared NTA.

Via cosmichriss

11. So it was a good decision to not take on the responsibility.

Via Algebralovr

12. That is exactly what it was in OP and her sister’s case.

Via sophosoftcat

13. It really did make no sense for her sister to give her sick kids to OP, who had no experience with kids.

Via Glittering-Cellist34

14. This was a hate-hate relationship.

Via Runns_withScissors

15. Her children, her problem.

Via Zealousideal_Use4518

I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Via cewallace9

Cat tax.

“Just spent 10 minutes looking for my cat.”