AITA for exposing my sister’s lies about why she wanted a house keeper?

One Redditor shares a situation with their sister, a stay-at-home wife, who wanted a housekeeper to clean the windows and bathrooms. When the sister exaggerated how long the cleaning took, the Redditor decided to clean the spaces themselves to see if it was truly as difficult as she claimed.

The Redditor quickly finished in half an hour, which exposed the sister’s exaggeration. This led to a heated argument with the sister and her husband. Did the Redditor overstep, or was this just an honest attempt to understand their sister? Read the full story below…

‘ AITA for exposing my sister’s lies about why she wanted a house keeper?’

My sister is a stay at home wife, no kids for now. Her and her husband had been discussing getting a house keeper to help clean the windows and bathrooms since she said it took a long time. I was visiting last weekend and she brought it up to me and seemed very happy.

Out of pure curiosity, and since i clean my house by myself being unwed, i asked her how long it took to do that since it didnt take me too long. She got defensive and upset, which i wasn’t expecting. She said i should try cleaning her two bathrooms(toilets and showers), and windows so I can see how long it takes her if I want to know so badly.

So, I did. I got out the scrubbing bubbles, the toilet and shower brush. Sprayed down the shower and toilets with it. Then went and sprayed and cleaned the windows. went back scrubbed the toilets and showers. about half an hour later I was done.

I guess she made it seem like to her husband that it took her hours to do what I did in half an hour. She once again got very mad, started yelling until she let out that “fine I lied about how long it takes because I HATE cleaning those!” to no surprise her husband got mad then.

he said if she had been honest about just not wanting to clean those that would have been fine but the fact that she lied about it gave him pause and he said he w as gonna re-think hiring someone if she thinks she can lie to get what she wants.. ​I noped out of there fast as I could. I didnt mean to expose a lie, i was just trying to understand my sister more. WITAH?

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

PM_TITS_OR_DONT −  I didnt mean to expose a lie, i was just trying to understand my sister more. NTA, but come on – you had to know she didn’t want you to actually show her up by cleaning her bathrooms and windows in front of her husband to demonstrate that it doesn’t take that long.

It’s not your problem that she lied in the first place, or that she has this s**tty attitude about doing her share of the work (which is almost nothing) but I call b**lshit on you “just trying to understand your sister more.”

NotColdNotWarm −  “I didnt mean to expose a lie, i was just trying to understand my sister more”. Yeaaah, I don’t buy it. It seemed like you were sure she was lying and wanted to expose her. For this reason, YTA, why do you even care about why she wants a house keeper.

But also your sister is quite dumb lol, you usually pay a house keeper by the hour. Surely the husband would have noticed that they were only paying her for 30min a week or something ?

[Reddit User] −  YTA: I’m sorry but that was really none of your business. If your sister and her husband get a housekeeper or don’t , it really had absolutely nothing to do with you.

Also, if you wanted to understand your sister more you could’ve just talked to her in private instead of putting her on the spot in front of her husband. I’m not saying it was correct of your sister to lie to her husband , yes she should have been honest but you were out of line with the whole situation.

Chrysoptera −  ESH. Seems like you went to a lot of effort just to prove your sister wrong and insert yourself into a situation that really only concerns her husband and herself.

ncole90 −  This was all a ruse to get you to clean them

JgJay21 −  YTA. Clearly there’s some underlying issues between you and your sister because I can’t imagine feeling the need to undermine my sis to her husband to the extent that I go clean a goddamned bathroom. Then come here with this b**lshit reasoning:

“I didnt mean to expose a lie, i was just trying to understand my sister more”. If her husband knew a thing about cleaning his own self, he would realize there’s no need for a housekeeper for a family of 2 with one as a stay-at-home.

mdpqu −  INFO. I don’t believe it. Can you come clean my bathroom to prove how quick it is?

actualreallifebear −  “I didnt mean to expose a lie, i was just trying to understand my sister more”.. ​. Well, that’s a lie. You could have had a private word if it bothered you so much.

She hates doing them, they can afford it, ok she exaggerated the time but for someone who hates doing it it may take longer. Also, unless you were cleaning at manic speed to prove your sister wrong, it takes more than half an hour to clean two bathrooms and all the windows.

holy_aim −  YTA Why are people going NTA here is blowing my mind. It’s for a simple fact that none of that was your business. It seems like a marriage problem. You literally did not have to drill your point in for no other reason than trapping your sister in a corner.

Not to mention if it really look peculiar to you, you could’ve put the same effort into asking her why she’s acting out as you did exposing her. From what I’m reading she’s not even spoiled. She does clean. She just hates doing the windows.

Edit: people in the comments are talking about the husband that it’s his business. You’re right. However, the act was done by the SISTER NOT THE HUSBAND which is still, and I can’t believe I have to stress this enough, NONE OF HER BUSINESS

A lot of people are obviously projecting some scorned sentiments about trophy wives on the wife. We don’t know anything about her. The OP has painted their sister in a way to prove her point. All of your “if’s ” are just that : pure projections.

If it’s the battle of the if’s then let’s deduce instead and let’s talk about what’s being said. if the wife was “lazy” she doesn’t have to do the rest of the chores except the bathroom and windows and then hire a help. That’s nonsense. If the husband has the capacity to have a house for him and his wife, and pay for help, then it’s easy to assume that he is made.

And since they seem to be younger people with no children, then this husband seems to be overworked and is probably not home quite a bit. That’s how he makes money. From what I’m understanding, the wife is acting up, I’m she’s probably lonely and wants company.

Asking for a help for her husband gives him the opportunity to think about the why’s and she’s probably hoping it’s obvious what she actually needs. Is it deceptive? Sure. People do that in relationships not just women. Men are also known not to talk about their feelings openly too. Is this a marriage problem? Yes. SO IT’S NONE OF ANYONE’S BUSINESS.

Any divorce lawyer would tell you that the reasons marriages fail is because you get other people involved one way or another instead of having the 2 people in the marriage interact with each other. So stay out of people’s marriages. And stop projecting your sad story about your exes onto other people’s relationships.

SBCrystal −  YTA. And you weren’t trying to understand your sister more. Who cares? If she wants a cleaner, she should get a cleaner. Some people just don’t like cleaning, some people are squeamish about cleaning certain things. I also can’t believe that you cleaned two bathrooms and the windows in half an hour unless you did a s**t job.

Was the Redditor justified in exposing the exaggeration, or should they have kept quiet? How would you have handled the situation if you were in their shoes? Share your thoughts below!