AITAH for telling my sister i won’t babysit her kids anymore after one of them throwed dinner plate into me for refusing giving tablet in bed time?

A Redditor recently shared their experience babysitting for their sister, only to face an unexpected tantrum and harsh criticism. After enforcing bedtime rules and dealing with a child’s outburst, they questioned whether they were wrong for standing their ground and refusing future babysitting duties. Read the full story below to decide for yourself!

‘ AITAH for telling my sister i won’t babysit her kids anymore after one of them throwed dinner plate into me for refusing giving tablet in bed time?’

Last weekend, my sister asked me to babysit her two kids (7M and 4F) while she went to a friend’s birthday party. I agreed, no problem. I’ve always been the ‘cool aunt’ and love spending time with them. Everything was fine until bedtime. Her 7-year-old didn’t want to go to bed and kept asking for his tablet, which my sister said he wasn’t allowed to use after 8 PM.

When I enforced that, he got upset and threw a full-blown tantrum, including throwing his dinner plate into me, leaving a massive mess not only in the room but also on my new clothes. I stayed calm, cleaned up, and eventually got them both to bed.

The next morning, my sister came home, and instead of thanking me, she berated me for not letting her son ‘self-soothe’ by using his tablet, claiming I made things harder for myself and for her later. She even suggested I need to ‘educate myself on modern parenting.’

I was hurt and told her that if she’s going to criticize me for following her original instructions and not letting her son walk all over me, then maybe she should find someone else to babysit next time. She called me dramatic and said I was punishing her for no reason. Now, I’m questioning if I overreacted. Was I too harsh, or is this just her projecting her stress onto me? AITAH?

Here’s the input from the Reddit crowd:

saintandvillian −  NTA. You were right. Never babysit a kid whose parents set you up for failure by changing their rules after the fact to make you seem like the bad guy.

swbarnes2 −  Letting kids “self-soothe” with a tablet before bedtime is a terrible idea. Giving in to that behavior is what will cause long term problems. 7 year olds should have better ways of handling their disappointment than throwing things.

ashatteredteacup −  ‘Self soothe with a tablet’ what sort of s**t parenting is this? This is what screen addiction looks like, when children scream bloody m**der just because their electronic devices were removed. If my kid were this rude to my sibling, she can say bye to screen time until next year. NTA.

OwnLime3744 −  NTA. Sister wanted you to enforce rules where she is incapable of doing so. Tell her to be a better parent, you are no longer willing to babysit for her spoiled b**t.

Outside-Ad1720 −  NTA. I have a family member whose son ‘self soothes’ with his tablet. He screams day and night if he doesn’t have it. Won’t eat without it. Won’t sleep without it. We all hate being around him and he’s only 3. You were lucky he didn’t hurt you. Stick to your guns. It will only get worse if she doesn’t start parenting.

Aggravating_Ring39 −  Nah. She berated you. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. She can stay home with her self righteous modern parenting and self soothe herself.

Dont-Blame-Me333 −  NTA your sister is mooching off you. She’s got a FREE babysitter but still she’s trying to parentify you. You don’t have your own kids, you don’t need parenting lessons. SHE is the parent, it is HER damn job. Her kid throwing plates of food at their sitter is a sure fire way to get black-balled by every sitter in the area. Spread the word her brats are out of control & don’t babysit for her anymore. Maybe after she can’t get anyone to babysit, she might finally wake up.

NHFNCFRE −  “Modern parenting” suggests that children shouldn’t be using screens at all. Bad parenting is when you let your kids be babysat by electronics.. OP is NTA.

say-so1986 −  NTA. Tantrums happen but the comment of your sister is way out of line.

Covert_Pudding −  NTA. Tell your sister that you aren’t punishing her. You’re just not finished educating yourself on modern parenting methods!