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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/Spirited_South_2748 on 2023-08-30 16:20:32.
I f19 am the oldest of four. My parents had me early in their marriage and then waited six years before having sex again. La la la la la. I’m not listening.
I have been helping with my siblings for as long as I can remember. I love them very much and I know our folks are working hard to provide for us.
This summer was the first time I planned to spend time away from my family by myself for an extended period of time. Other than one school trip in middle school and one in high school.
My boyfriend and I planned to spend nine days doing some back country hiking on Crown Land. That is publicly owned land that isn’t a national park or anything. It’s just wilderness.
I asked my parents’ permission back in June when we started planning the trip. They said yes and that they would arrange for child for that week.
I had a big countdown calendar on my bedroom door with the leave date circled in red. I crossed out every day as it got closer. My siblings all knew I was going away and the oldest teased me about going away “to get some”.
My boyfriend picked me up on Saturday at 4 AM so we could make the place by 9 AM. My parents didn’t notice I was gone until about noon when they were going shopping and wanted to wake my lazy butt up to watch the kids. By that time we were already in a cellular dead zone.
When we came out to civilization again I had dozens of texts and missed calls from Saturday. A few on Sunday then they tapered off.
I called home last Sunday on my way home as soon as I read a few messages. My parents were upset that I left without telling them goodbye and more upset when they remembered that I would be gone until last Sunday.
They spaced and forgot to arrange for child care. My oldest brother is almost 13 but he isn’t ready to leave alone and in charge of getting the littles to their summer camps and stuff.
My parents are mad at me for leaving them in the lurch. They said I’m irresponsible for making them scramble for child care help. I literally have them two months of notice and asked permission. It was pretty much all I talked about for the two weeks before I left.
I feel bad that they had to do that but I think I did my part. And I didn’t “sneak out in the middle of the night”. We left at that time because it’s a long drive.