A woman has been defended online after she refused to compensate for the “expensive” slices of cake her daughter ate without permission.
In a viral Reddit post shared on the “r/AmItheA**hole” subreddit, a mother revealed that her daughter was babysitting her family members when she ate the piece of cake left in the refrigerator. But when the mother's sister demanded that she pay her for her custom-made slices of cake, the woman said no.
The 38-year-old mother began her post by explaining that she is a single mother and lives with her 17-year-old daughter, whom she refers to as Carly. The woman's younger sister lives near her with her husband and her two children, a nine-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son. Carly tends to babysit her cousins on weekends so she can have 30 to 40 euros ($32.44 to $43.25) of extra money, her mother said.
“My sister and I don't have Carly babysit, she volunteers. “She likes having extra money to fund her Starbucks addiction without a part-time job in fast food or retail, plus the kids love watching her,” the woman wrote. “I'm glad she's learning to be responsible. “I think it's a win for everyone.”
However, he explained that there was an incident a week ago, when Carly went to babysit her cousins. “A couple of hours after Carly got home from babysitting, my sister calls me. It was my niece's birthday about two weeks ago and there was leftover birthday cake in her kitchen,” the Reddit user said. “It was an elegant custom-made lemon curd cake and I remember at the party a lot of the kids didn't want to eat it, so there was a lot left over. While she was babysitting, Carly had eaten two servings.”
The sister insisted that Carly “should have asked before serving” the cake, which she considered “expensive.” Although she apologized to her sister and told her that she would talk to her daughter, the sister pressed further, stating that “we should compensate her” for the custom-made cake slices.
“At first, I honestly thought he couldn't be serious, but he wanted me to give him money for the cake,” she said. In a comment, the woman clarified that the cake was kept in the bread basket instead of the freezer. Although the woman jokingly told her sister that the cake was going to be hard anyway, she “made it clear” that she was not going to give her sister any money.
“He says he paid 70 euros ($75.68) for the cake and expects me to give him 20 euros ($21.62). I told him I’m not going to do that,” she added. “My sister says I'm being inconsiderate and that my daughter ate the slices without permission. I feel like she's being mean and what difference would it have made if they had eaten it all last weekend or at her birthday party?
Since it was shared on Reddit on February 20, the post has received more than 7,000 interactions and more than 1,500 comments. Most users defended the woman for refusing to pay for the cake slices and encouraged her daughter to stop caring for them altogether.
“Pay your sister for both slices of her fancy cake** and tell your daughter that she will never again babysit her siblings without full compensation comparable to other babysitters,” the top comment reads. “Your sister had the golden goose of babysitters, and she obviously had no idea how good she had it. Emphasis on had. If she wants to nickel and dime you, let's go.
And don't bother telling your sister. Can she find out that her daughter will charge her, say, 20 euros an hour? For every hour? Or whatever the current price is, or she can look for an alternative.”
Another person agreed that her daughter should charge a higher rate for childcare, instead of paying for the pie. “Next time you need her to babysit, make sure her daughter charges you the full babysitter amount for each child,” they said. “If they want to get petty, they better compensate her daughter properly for her work time.”
While the woman “100 percent” agreed that her teenage daughter “should have asked permission before serving herself something like a birthday cake,” she said, “Do I think my sister is overreacting to the situation?”
