Story Of the Day: Siblings Refuse to Take Care Of Each Other's Children for a Couple Of Days

Ben is a father of four kids. His oldest child is 12, while his youngest is four years old. He has a younger brother, Matthew, who wed two years ago.

Matthew and his wife welcomed their first child, a baby girl they named Bloom. He felt his wife had done so much since giving birth to their daughter and planned a surprise vacation for just him and her.

Therefore, he called his brother and asked him if he could help watch Bloom for seven nights to enable him to spend time with his wife on their vacation.

Ben told Matthew he would think about it, which surprised and disappointed him as he expected him to agree to his request without hesitation.

However, he agreed he could ponder on it and get back to him. When Ben thought about it, he felt a week was a long time to look after Bloom, especially as the toddler had major sleeping issues.

He also felt Bloom would be with him for eight days since his brother would drop her hours before traveling. Besides these, taking care of someone else's child is a lot different from taking care of one's own child.

Ben finally came up with a plan. He would watch over Bloom for a week only if Matthew watched over his kids for three or four nights this fall so he could take his wife on vacation too.

When he told Matthew, he got angry and told Ben he had four kids and that he and his wife have jobs. He gave other reasons why watching Ben's kids would be a big ask for him.

However, Ben reasoned that his kids are much older and easier to handle than an infant. Hence, they would not need constant supervision.

Matthew explained that he was not specific about a particular time he could commit to watching over Ben's kids and pleaded that he should agree to his request and they can resolve his later.

However, Ben refused despite his brother's constant pleas and suggested they should take Bloom along with them on their vacation and hire a babysitter for the period. Since then, Matthew has stopped talking to Ben.

Do you think Ben is being mean for refusing to care for his brother's children? Is he within his rights to do so? What would you do if you find yourself in a similar situation?