I (17f) am in college and living at home, so my break has just been me watching my brother (7m) at home until the end of January. My aunt (45f) asked me if I could watch her son (7m) while he is off of school. I said yes because I know she’s been stressed out with her new job and working overnights. She said it would only be Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays because my uncle (59m) is off Wednesdays and Thursdays. My uncle said he would pay $10 an hour, which I felt was fair because their son requires special attention. He has cerebral palsy (mild), Autism, and ADHD and frequently has outbursts and such.

I watched him for 9 and a half hours on Tuesday (no Monday because of x-mas), so I expected to be paid $90. My uncle gave me $100, which I felt was incredibly generous, until he explained it was for the entire week. He also said I would have to watch him on Wednesday, which we didn’t agree to. I tried to say something but he wanted to get home. I called my aunt and she said that she wanted to spend time with my uncle and rest on Wednesday because they don’t see eachother anymore due to her new job. She also said she didn’t know why I was calling her considering my uncle was the one who said it and not her. After my mom berated me for not wanting to help out my family, I told my uncle it was okay and canceled the plans I had for Wednesday. 5 minutes before he was supposed to come over, they canceled on me.

They said I would have watched him Thursday instead, which I was also confused about because they said no Thursdays. The same back and forth happened with us and my mom, so I said yes to watching him on Thursday, but I said it couldn’t be for the full 9 hours. We had family coming over for dinner and I was expected to clean the entire house up, so I said it could only be until 3 pm. He agreed and he didn’t pay me for the 4 hours I watched him that day. It is currently Friday and I am watching him again for 9 hours, and I won’t be getting paid for it.

I was ranting to my mom about this because he isn’t an easy kid to watch and I feel that I should be paid according to the agreement we made. He's not a bad kid by any means and he and my brother play really well together most of the time, but he is still challenging to deal with. He ONLY eats McDonalds hamburgers with nothing on them, so I'm having to doordash all of the time because I don't have a car currently. He is constantly doing things like filling up the toilet with a bunch of paper without even using the bathroom and hitting and kicking. I said I wanted to speak to my aunt or uncle about being paid what they agreed, which is roughly $230 for this week alone. My mother told me to "stop being an asshole" and accept what he gave me, especially because he didn't need to pay me at all. I want to say something, but now I'm starting to question if I'm just being a petty asshole like my mom thinks.