Childless Woman Asks If She’s Wrong for Not Giving Days Off to Co-Worker with 3 Children

Parenting isn’t easy; raising happy children is one of the most challenging things in the world. But having children doesn’t give anyone the right to make someone else feel bad about themselves; that’s what today’s Reddit story is about.

Reddit user ThrowawayAITA5391 posted her question on AITA (Am I the A**hole?), asking whether she’s wrong for not giving her co-worker days off. She said:

“My coworker (41F) has 3 kids and has worked at this company for 17 years. I (27F) am childless and have worked here 5 years. We get 18 paid vacation days per year and unlimited sick days if we provide proof. The vacation days are added to your balance on January 1st and accumulate if you don’t use them. We can give them to someone else.”

“My coworker regularly takes a day or two every month or so. This year, she used 10 of her days in January when her brother dies and another 4 when her daughter got sick. As a result, she only has 4 days for the rest of this year. I have been saving my days for a long vacation and have 44 days, so about 2 months worth saved up. My coworker’s kids want her to take them on a two week vacation. The place they want to go is in our country but pretty far away so 4 days won’t be enough.”

“She wants me to give her 6 of my days. Her justification is that I’m childless and don’t need that many days. We do get a lot of PTO. I really want to go on a trip around Europe after the pandemic. She says she needs a break more than me. She’s kind of right, maybe kids do make you extra tired. It’s not her fault she had to use 14 vacation days in the first 2 months of the year. I told her that I can’t give her my days. She’s upset and says that it’s my fault her kids’ dreams are being crushed. Am I the a**hole?”

After receiving a tremendous response to her post, she decided to post an update talking about the woman not being a terrible person. She said:

“Update: She’s not that terrible. Some other coworkers and I each gave her a day so she could have the full two weeks with her kids.”

The Responses

Reddit’s community completely supported this woman for doing what she did. For context, NTA means “Not the A**hole.” Here are some of the top responses:

saran1111 commented:

“Oh my God NO. She is not entitled to anything but her own time off.”

“It may not be her fault that shes had sick kids and deaths in the family, but it certainly isn’t your fault either.”

“DO NOT give this entitled woman YOUR vacation time. She can take unpaid leave if she is so worried about her kids dreams being crushed.”

“NTA”

Reasonable_racoon wrote:

“She’s not entitled to your holiday days in the same way that she’s not entitled to your pay, or anything else of yours. The number of times her birth control failed is irrelevant.”

“NTA.”

KiwiTurk2020 said:

“NTA – that is really weird that staff can ‘gift’ their leave to others and frankly, a bit sh*tty because it can lead to exactly this situation where someone pressures a colleague to do it. So what happens if your parent dies, then a grandparent, then you have move house and you use up your 18 days? Is she going to gift you some of hers? No, I didn’t think so. If she wants to go on holiday, she’ll just have to unpaid leave.”

Warfinho responded:

“NTA. She didn’t choose to have the time off at the start of the year, but she chose to have kids. I’d report her to your boss. That’s an outrageous thing to say.”

This post has over 2.1k comments on Reddit, you can read them here.

Our Take

This woman did nothing wrong, NTA. She’s a kind-hearted human being who still gave her co-worker days off even after she hurt her feelings. Again, having children doesn’t give anyone the right to hurt others.

What’s Your Take?

What’s your take on this woman’s situation? Share your take in the comments below!

Source: Reddit