My sister wants my daughter to pay for 2-week-old cake she ate while babysitting

Sisters Lily* and Claudia* have been doing things together forever. Even when they welcomed kids of their own, they always made an effort to spend quality time together, even if it’s just for an afternoon.

Lily’s daughter, Kylie* is 17 and loves babysitting her younger cousins, nine-year-old Mia* and seven-year-old Nathan*. 

Whenever Lily’s mom and aunt head out for an evening on the weekend, Kylie is more than happy to babysit Claudia’s kids, especially after receiving $30-40 cash in hand as payment. 

Teen’s aunt demands compensation for two slices of cake 

“She likes having the extra money to fund her Starbucks addiction without a part-time job in fast food or retail,” Kylie’s mom, Lily, said on Reddit, adding the two kids she babysits “love getting to see her.”  

“I’m glad that she’s getting to learn responsibility. I think it’s a win all around.”

Last weekend Lily and her sister Claudia planned to go out for the afternoon, and Kylie was set to babysit as usual. 

“A couple hours after [Kylie] came home from babysitting, my sister calls me,” Lily said.

Two weeks earlier, the family celebrated Mia’s ninth birthday, sharing a delicious lemon curd cake during the day. 

“It was a custom-made fancy lemon curd cake and I remember at the party a lot of the kids didn’t want to eat it so a lot was leftover,” she said.

Leftover slices were left in a bread tin, and while Kylie was babysitting her cousins, she felt hungry and helped herself to two pieces of cake. 

Claudia was furious when she learned her niece had taken a few slices for herself while watching the kids.

“My sister said that she should’ve asked before helping herself to the cake and that it was expensive,” Lily wrote. “I apologized to my sister and told her that I would have a word with my daughter.”

But that wasn’t good enough for Claudia, who once again mentioned that the “cake was custom-made and expensive.” 

Then she told Lily she should “compensate her” for the missing slices. 

“At first I honestly thought she couldn’t be serious, but she did want me to give her money because of the cake,” Lily said. 

She made it clear she would not be giving her sister money for the cake, considering it would probably already be stale after sitting in the bread tin for two weeks. 

Claudia wasn’t letting up, explaining that she spent $75 for the cake, and 17yo Kylie had eaten roughly $21 worth of slices. 

“My sister says I’m being inconsiderate and that my daughter ate the slices without permission,” Lily said. 

“What difference would it have made if all of it got eaten last weekend or at the birthday party?”

“Two-week-old cake is garbage;  your daughter is family.”

People on Reddit couldn’t believe Claudia would make such requests and argued the compensation demand was unreasonable. 

“Your sister is being extremely petty,” said another. “Two-week-old cake is garbage. Your daughter is family. Your sister should be happy that the cake didn’t end up in the bin.”

The community suggested Lily keep the peace by paying the requested amount but refusing to let her daughter ever babysit again unless certain rules were agreed to beforehand. 

“Next time they need her to babysit, make sure your daughter charges them the full amount of babysitter for each child,” read a comment. 

The age of the cake also got people talking. 

“Two-week-old cake?” someone asked. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s depreciated by now. Offer her fifty cents and a coupon for a cupcake from the supermarket.”

“Sorry, buddy. The second this cake left the lot it was worth at best $3 a slice,” said another. “I could go to maybe $4 if we work it out in trade.” 

“Was [Claudia] expecting all the party guests to pitch in for this expensive cake? Very likely not,” wrote a third.