Back in the old days, many, many years ago, people came up with a wise proverb: “He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.” And the centuries that have passed since then have only confirmed the truth of these words. Very often, a person who tries to frame another later faces similar problems.
An additional confirmation of this wisdom is actually this story originally told in the AITA community on Reddit. Its author, having seriously quarreled with her sister-in-law, one day faced a clear ‘frame-up’ on her part – and the author’s response led that woman to even more serious consequences. So, let’s figure it all out together.
More info: Reddit
RELATED:The author of the post had a long-term verbal agreement with her sister-in-law about each of them babysitting their kids during the week
This actually helped both women devote more time to their jobs
Recently, the author dropped her kids off at her SIL’s porch after they had a big argument, expecting that she would take care of them as usual
But that lady not only didn’t babysit them but even called the police over ‘child abandonment’
The author had to rush back and explain everything to the cops – and she decided to quit babysitting the SIL’s kids from that very day
The Original Poster (OP) and her sister-in-law are both moms, and since 2020, they have had an unspoken mutual agreement on babysitting. Three days a week, the author babysits the SIL’s kids, and three days a week, she returns the favor. Over the years, the women perfected this system to the point of automatism – sometimes simply dropping the kids off at the other one’s porch, knowing that she’d take care of them.
But recently, the system crashed. The day before, the OP had an argument with the SIL, but the next day, she brought her kids to her. The author always keeps her phone on silent while driving, so when she got to work, she was surprised to see a lot of missed calls from the SIL. In one of the texts, she even claimed that she was going to call the police over child abandonment.
The mom rushed back – after all, she works with children, and a record of child abandonment could be a major red flag for her career. When the OP arrived, the SIL told her that the police were already on their way, so our heroine had to wait for the cops and then explain to them that it was just a misunderstanding. From then onwards, the OP simply went no-contact with the sister-in-law, refusing to babysit her kids either.
Even after she called and apologized. The thing is that now that woman can’t dedicate enough time to her job and, in fact, her family is faced with the issue of serious financial losses. Moreover, the alternative for them would even be returning to their parents’ house. Which no one actually wants. So now everyone is calling the OP heartless and is trying to persuade her to make peace with the SIL, and she’s not sure that she wants this.
Technically, the author’s sister-in-law did have a reason to call the police for child abandonment – after all, as FindLaw notes, “leaving an infant on a doorstep, at a trash dumpster, or in other public or private places” is one of the formal signs of child abandonment. And well, technicallyit was leaving them on a doorstep… In other words, our heroine could have really faced a serious problem.
Depending on where she lived, this “revenge” on the part of her SIL could’ve brought the original poster a lawsuit. For example, Lawinfo points out that in California, child abandonment or neglect is in some cases considered a misdemeanor, and convictions result in up to a year of jail time, a $2K fine, or both. In other states, the penalty can be even more severe. In other words, this was not an “overreaction” in the classic sense.
People in the comments to the original post also sincerely believe that our heroine could easily have lost her job because of the SIL’s actions, so now her reaction seems actually justified. “Let her struggle to find childcare or lose her job,” someone wrote quite reasonably. “You could have easily lost yours.”
Many responders are pretty much sure that the described case is a classic manifestation of instant karma, where the SIL simply ran into the very problem that she tried to lead the author into. “She wanted to escalate it, enjoy the outcome of the escalation,” another person added in the comments. And do you, our dear readers, also agree that the original poster did the right thing here?
Most commenters gave the author their sincere support, claiming that her SIL just ran into the same issue that she’d prepared for her
