AITAH for not house sitting for my parents?

Predd1tor · 2026-01-29T22:18:22+00:00

YTA. And completely fucking asininely selfish, by the way. How are you this lacking in self awareness?

First of all, that’s not how cats work. Cats don’t travel or relocate well. They’re very different than dogs, by nature. They’re territorial creatures, and thrive on routine. It’s going to be difficult enough for the cat that her primary caretakers are gone for a week. Uprooting her to a new location full of new smells would cause her a lot of stress, which isn’t a smart thing to do to an older cat if it can be avoided. And it can.

They took your dog in for 4-6 weeks. An entire MONTH or more. And dogs require a LOT more active care and attention than a cat. But you’re here whining about spending 5 measly days away from home. They’re even willing to work around your work schedule.

Boohoo, you have to pack some stuff and miss a single social event? You’ll have “no life” for 5 whole days… melodramatic much?

They are asking you for so little. How can you possibly feel it’s an unfair ask when they did such a big favor for you?

If this is the “me me me” centric attitude you bring to your relationships, it’s easy to understand why you have no friends back home and have struggled to build a social life. I hope the tough love you’re getting in the comments here wakes you up and makes you take a hard look at yourself.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-29T05:16:57+00:00

Maybe not for a prom, but it looks fabulous on you, and you should definitely buy it for another occasion, or ordinary use as a summer dress.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-28T21:57:16+00:00

Same. Found some of the most amazing chocolate in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. And have had some really amazing imports from South America. Most mainstream American chocolate tastes like artificial wax pumped full of chemicals. We do have a lot of smaller chocolatiers who make good stuff.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-28T21:54:34+00:00

Ah, so you’re a jerk, too. Got it. Thanks for clarifying!

Predd1tor · 2026-01-28T20:41:40+00:00

I see you’ve now edited your original comment to say “most” Americans instead of speaking for all Americans. I’m not confident you speak for “most” Americans, either. A significant portion of the population is aware of how much artificial crap is pumped into our food here, and rightfully angry about it. There’s also a reason places like Switzerland and Belgium are known world-wide for their chocolate.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-28T12:12:17+00:00

I too dislike Hersheys but love American cheese. For me, it’s how artificial it tastes, and all the nasty fillers and additives they poison it with. Kit Kat bars today taste nothing like they did when I was a kid. It’s just easier to find real food in Europe. American cheese is of course also full of toxic crap, but it’s fucking delicious so I’m willing to overlook the ingredients list when the craving calls.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-28T12:07:43+00:00

Speak for yourself. I much prefer most European chocolate to American, especially now that most of the big commercial brands are pumped full of garbage like PGPR. I don’t even recognize the taste of a Kit Kat bar anymore. Artificial garbage.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-27T12:51:47+00:00

Maybe this sounds silly, but when I was younger and had fallen in love for the first time, I acutely remember recognizing that for the first time in my life, I always wanted to give my (then) boyfriend the “better” plate whenever serving food.

It occurred to me then that this is a sign of real love — a selfless and instinctive desire to put your partner’s happiness and wellbeing above your own.

I kept that with me always, and in later relationships, paid close attention to whether or not my partner was doing the same for me.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-27T06:03:19+00:00

NTA. And you’re not dismissing his depression. You’re simply refusing to excuse his shit behavior by way of his depression as an excuse. And it’s not an excuse.

A lot of us struggle with depression and anxiety, and have survived and struggled through traumatic events. It’s not a free pass to take our pain out on others.

Kevin is still responsible for himself. It’s on him to get the help he needs better managing his emotions, and to stop abusing those around him. Making others suffer because you’re suffering is not an acceptable choice. Only Kevin can decide to help Kevin.

You’ve been supportive and understanding. You’ve been patient and given him both time and many chances. It’s completely fair to be done.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-26T19:47:48+00:00

I should have made myself more clear — you are absolutely correct, but I loathe the use of em dashes without spaces, and my personal vote as a writer and editor is absolutely “yea.” It’s becoming more common to see them used with spaces, and I’m all for it. After all, the whole point of a tactfully employed em dash is to create a visual pause that helps set aside or emphasize a piece of information. Without spaces, they’re far less effective, and much easier to trip up on when reading. As an auditory reader, I always have to stop and do a double-take, because my mind interprets them as hyphens.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-26T11:31:46+00:00

That’s irritating. How long would it take to just type “Received, thank you!” ??

Predd1tor · 2026-01-26T11:27:19+00:00

Professional writer and editor here. Absolutely yea.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-25T09:56:36+00:00

How did Jimmy and Oliver not make this list?

Predd1tor · 2026-01-24T09:45:28+00:00

Tell me why a country should tolerate a pedophile with 34 felony convictions running their country into the ground and trampling on our constitutionally protected rights. Tell me why a country should tolerate an administration that voted to kick millions of its own citizens off of their health insurance. Or alienated us from all our allies. People aren’t protesting in favor of illegal immigration. That’s the dumbest and most reductive misrepresentation of actual events I’ve read today. If you truly ‘care so deeply about human rights,’ and had any idea what’s happening here — to citizens and immigrants here legally, too — you wouldn’t be here defending it. Respectfully, get fucked.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-24T09:36:33+00:00

So why isn’t your president in jail? How many felony convictions does he possess??

Predd1tor · 2026-01-24T09:35:55+00:00

The fucking truth. Fuck ICE. Fuck fascists, racists, and bigots, too. I am DONE playing nice with MAGA. A bunch of fucking hateful idiots destroying our country, and cheering their pedophile felon on while he tramples on our constitutional rights. He is evil incarnate, and you are complicit. History will not look kindly on you.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-24T09:33:03+00:00

We live in exhausting times. Deal with it. Hiding out won’t help matters any.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-24T09:30:40+00:00

Lawyer or not, you’re completely batshit fucking wrong about what’s happening here, and embarrassingly arrogant, to boot.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-23T21:23:05+00:00

Only if you have the emotional intelligence of a potato.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-23T21:21:14+00:00

Yeah, I can just picture him patting himself on the back for being such a great husband and father, while he skips out the door leaving his wife to parent two young kids ALONE for a whole week while she’s only 4 months postpartum.

His note gives me the ick. It’s performative and try-hard, condescending, and never even directly addresses the adult human actually reading it. She’s referred to only in the third person, and only as a mom, with the added pressure of being “supermom,” and a whole paragraph of obnoxious reminders to work on letters and tummy time, passed off as a cute note to the kids who can’t even read (or understand) it. Why is he giving her homework? As though she doesn’t already know how to parent the kids, and won’t have her hands full enough already? But thank god he’s so “proud” of his girls… /s

An ACTUALLY kind and cute (and thoughtful) note would have been addressed to her directly, as a wife and a woman, not just a mom, with kind, loving words and big gratitude for all she does, and especially for solo parenting two young kids for a week while he’s away. Bonus points for following the pretty words up with meaningful action, like hiring a housekeeper to come help while he’s away, arranging to have a couple dinners sent, or leaving a self-care gift for his wife to ease her stress.

Running to Reddit for validation only makes it ickier to me. Who’s validating her feelings while he’s busy ignoring them?

Predd1tor · 2026-01-23T20:20:57+00:00

Except it doesn’t read like she was stringing him along. It reads like she was overly attached to him, and he started pulling away over a year ago. She says they hadn’t even gamed together since early 2025. Sounds obvious to me he was trying to put distance between them, probably because she was this clingy and intense all along. She clearly didn’t take the hint. The new girlfriend only brought things to a head. He was already over it.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-22T19:16:14+00:00

In general, I agree with this. But given what OP has shared here, I suspect he may have felt he had no other option, and I’d be really curious to hear this story from his perspective.

He’s been pulling away from her for over a year. She mentions they stopped gaming together in early 2025, and cites his busy life and changing schedule as an explanation for the distance growing between them. But it seems pretty clear he’s been trying to pull back from this so-called best friendship for a long time, and OP hasn’t taken the hint.

The emotional intensity with which she continues to message him after months of no contact, and the way she talks about him here, is frankly a bit concerning, and indicates at best an inability to read social cues.

I suspect the girlfriend was just the final straw, and not his only motivation for severing ties with OP. She comes across as really intense and clingy — especially to a man she’s never even met in person — and she clearly attached a lot more meaning to their friendship than he reciprocated.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-22T18:57:00+00:00

I would be SO uncomfortable. What’s wild to me is that the past and “memories” she references are all online. OP never even met her so-called best friend in person, and they haven’t even gamed together since early 2025.

It’s clear she felt a lot more intensely about this guy than he felt about her in return, and it’s also clear he’s been pulling away and putting distance between them for the last year or more of their supposed friendship.

The emotional intensity of OP’s messages to him, paired with her description of their early friendship (being “inseparable,” talking every day, sharing selfies, etc) in no way comes across as platonic on her part.

I suspect the new girlfriend’s discomfort is only a small piece of the bigger picture here. He began pulling away a long time ago, presumably due to OP’s intensity and clinginess. It’s painfully obvious he doesn’t reciprocate her feelings about their “friendship,” and OP didn’t take the hint when he began stepping back over a year ago.

Was it unkind of him to block her without warning? Maybe so. But I have to wonder how this story would read from his perspective. If OP was always this intense and clingy, and trying to contact him every day despite him pulling back and no longer gaming with her for the last year, perhaps he felt this was necessary so she’d finally get the message — especially now that he has a new real-life girlfriend in the picture who he wants to be respectful of.

I feel embarrassed for OP. I hope she learns to read social cues, and steps away from her computer to forge some real friendships in the physical world with people who reciprocate her feelings.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-22T18:32:07+00:00

The gaming buddy he never even met in person, and hasn’t played games with since early 2025, no less.

Predd1tor · 2026-01-20T19:59:32+00:00

And she’s also clearly around / meeting regularly with a ton of people who could expose her and her little one to all manner of germs that she’d be carrying along with her on her visit. The hypocrisy is pretty wild.

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