17-year-old refuses to babysit his 38-year-old sister's kids once after continuously doing it 5 days a week, gets grounded for putting friends above family: 'I tried to defend myself but they didn’t listen'

"It takes a village to raise a child," the classic quotation goes, but it doesn't thoroughly examine the involvement of said village. To some, a village means pre-colonial communal raising of children, without the traditional post-colonial idea of a nuclear family with a mother and father. All of the adults in said village take responsibility for all of the children and their well-being, and all teach them different things. Kids are constantly surrounded by more than two adults and form strong attachments to grown-ups who aren't their biological parents.

As rad an idea as that is, that's not why people say, "It takes a village to raise a child." Parents usually say that when they want someone to babysit for free. Wanting a village is totally understandable, and parents who don't have friends or family that they can call up when they need help often struggle with stress and big babysitting bills.

Having a village of adults is one thing, but demanding that your teenage siblings watch your kids while you go out and do who knows what is an entirely different thing. The only sister in this story is demanding that a 17-year-old teenager babysit her kids every day after school when she's going everywhere but work.
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AITA for not babysitting my sisters kids?

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