Child-free woman refuses to split payment for friend’s babysitter during night out

Woman with no children has been defended online after she was asked to pay $100 for group’s babysitter

A childfree woman is being defended online after she refused to split payment for a babysitter during a night out with her friends.

In a viral Reddit post shared to the r/TwoHotTakes subreddit, a woman has questioned whether she was in the wrong for “not chipping in” for her friends’ babysitter, despite having no children herself. In the post, which has received more than 7,000 upvotes since it was shared last week, the woman explained that she’s been friends with the same group of four women since high school and they each have one child.

“We do dinner about once a month and recently the group has hired a babysitter to watch the kids while we go to dinner. It’s four kids, so it’s $100 for two-three hours,” she wrote. “At dinner, we take turns paying. Everyone generally orders about the same amount of stuff, one alcoholic drink and we split two bottles of sparkling water for the table along with our entrees. It’s never really been a thing, until recently.”

She explained that they each take turns paying, and this time it was her turn to pay for the dinner - the first time since her friends had hired the group babysitter. “I paid for dinner as normal, and hugged everyone goodbye,” the woman said. But when she got home, she had received a “flurry of texts” from the group saying that she owed $100.

“They said because it was my week to pay, I was also expected to pay for the babysitter ‘because all of us get the pleasure of being out without kids,’” she recalled her friends saying. “I said, ‘I don’t have kids. Why would I pay for your babysitter?’ They said, ‘You get the pleasure of hanging out with us and it’s the only way we can do it kid free.’”

While the woman revealed that her friends think she’s unwilling to “pay [her] share” of the babysitting fee, she maintained: “What share? I have no kids to babysit!”

“This is causing a rift, but I don’t think I’m the jerk! But maybe I am? This wouldn’t be a financial imposition on me, but it sure seems unfair,” she added.

In the comments section, a majority of Reddit users defended the childfree woman. Many people agreed that it wasn’t her responsibility to split payment for the babysitter, considering she doesn’t have any children. Others couldn’t help but ask the same question: Where are their fathers?

“Do any of these children have fathers!???!” one Reddit user commented.

“And where are the fathers??? I guess I’m missing that part. Why do the kids have a sitter if they could be home with dad? If this is dads’ night out too, why are only the moms’ group having to buck up?” another asked.

The woman clarified that ever since they hired a babysitter, her friends and their husbands have been planning dinner on the same night each month “to take maximum advantage of hiring a sitter”.

“I would NEVER expect anyone to cover my babysitting costs. Especially someone without kids and not involved at all?” commented one Reddit user, while another said: “Your friends are crazy, they chose to have children not you.”

A third person wrote: “As a parent myself, they’re bananas. No one else is required to pay for my kid so I can come hang out with them. If I can’t work it out for a sitter or family to stay with her and can’t bring her, that sucks, but I don’t go.”

One user called the woman’s friends “rude and entitled” for expecting her to pay for their babysitter, but wondered whether paying the fee “was something you agreed to, then backed out last minute”.

The woman replied: “There was never any conversation with me about paying for the babysitter. They literally all just assumed I would be fine with continuing to trade payments every week, INCLUDING the new babysitting fees. I have no idea why.”