Mom Lies About Working Late, Makes Her Sister Pick up Her 7-Year-Old Daughter from School While She's Hanging Out with Her Friends at the Mall

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Jun 29, 2026 3:45 PM EDT

She's taking advantage of her kindness.

It's not always easy to be a working parent. If you have a partner who can stay home with the kids and take care of them all day, it's much easier to be a parent with a job because 99% of the time, you won't have to leave work to pick your kids up from school or take them to the doctor's office. If you're on your own or both parents are working, you will have to leave work more often to attend to your child's needs, unless you have an unusually flexible job. 

There's a reason why it's a lot easier to live near your family. If you get along with your parents and siblings, there's a good chance they'll be able to help you out when push comes to shove, and you need someone to attend to your kid while you're stuck at work. Some grandparents, aunts, and uncles do this for their grandkids and niblings five days a week, which helps strengthen family bonds and enables working parents to provide for their children financially. 

Some family members are okay with babysitting their nieces, nephews, or grandchildren as needed, but not whenever for whatever reason. They might be okay watching their nephew if his mom is being held up at work, but not if his mom wants to go to the movies with her besties. The aunt in this story caught her sister red-handed while she was babysitting her daughter under pretenses. Her sister said someone had called out at work and that she desperately needed someone to watch her daughter, but she found her hanging out with her girlfriends over lunch while she was babysitting.  

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  • A little girl in the back of her aunt's car after school.
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    A model of a little girl in the back of her aunt's car after school. 

  • Am I the bad guy for refusing to pick up my niece anymore after finding out my sister was lying about working late?

    For the past four months, I've been picking up my sister's 7-year-old daughter from school two or three times a week. My sister kept saying her manager was scheduling mandatory late
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • shifts and that she had nobody else who could get there before after-school care closed. I work from home, so she assumed it was easier for me. It wasnt always easy, but I love my
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • HOLA
    via A. C.

    A representation of a woman working from home in her apartment. 

  • niece and didnt want her stuck without a ride. Picking her up usually meant ending work early, driving about 25 minutes to the school, bringing her back to
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • my apartment, feeding her dinner, and keeping her until my sister arrived around 8 or 9. I had to cancel plans a few times and move meetings, but my sister always acted extremely grateful and said
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • she hated needing so much help. Last Thursday she texted me at noon saying someone had called out and she urgently needed me again. I
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • had plans that evening, but I rearranged them because she made it sound like refusing could get her in trouble at work. Around 6, my niece asked if we could get ice cream, so we
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • stopped at a shopping center near my apartment. That's where I saw my sister sitting outside a restaurant with three friends, drinking cocktails and laughing.
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • O
    via laura adai (Unsplash+)

    A photo of what could be a mom and her friend chatting over lunch without their kids. 

  • She looked shocked when she noticed us. At first she claimed her shift had ended early, but one of her friends casually said they had been shopping together since around 2. My sister then
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • admitted she had used me for pickup several times when she wasnt actually working because it was the only chance she got to "have a life." She said being a single mom is exhausting
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • and that I wouldnt understand. I told her I would no longer be her regular pickup person and that she needed to arrange after-school care or
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • speak to our parents. I'll still help during a real emergency, but I'm not rearranging my work and personal life based on stories I can't trust. She got angry and said I was
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • punishing my niece for her mistake. She has also told our family that I suddenly abandoned her after promising to help. My mom thinks I should
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • keep doing pickups but set clearer rules, because my niece loves spending time with me and has nothing to do with the lie. I love her too, but I feel like continuing would teach my sister that
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • she can manipulate me as long as my niece is involved. AITJ for cutting off the regular pickups without giving my sister another chance?
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • Strong_District_5894 NTJ I'd never pick her up again. That's it.
    via u/Strong_District_5894
  • Cloudy DeskFox OP I think you're right, I cant keep making exceptions when all that teaches her is that lying to me still gets her what she wants.
    via u/CloudyDeskFox
  • Sea-Ad9057 It seems as though your mum volunteered to pick her up from now on
    via u/Sea-Ad9057
  • onlyoneofmetoday Ntj, your sister lied and took advantage of your love for your niece, she could have asked you to have your niece so she could have some freedom time but no she resorted to lies. I would offer some time with your niece maybe say you will have hher one night a week but your sister drops her off at yours, if she says no then she is the one denying your niece time with you. All it needed was truth and you would probably still picked up your niece most of the time but to force you,
    via u/onlyoneofmetoday

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school liar work niece aunt small family sister daughter mom
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