I am not the Original Poster. Originally posted by u/ileavethingsonplanes on r/AmItheAsshole.

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AITA for letting my niece get dirty? (7 Jan 2023)

My sister dropped off my niece (6Y. We'll call her Kate) to my house this morning because she had an appointment and I offered to babysit. All she said to me was which foods Kate can and cannot eat, then she left.

It's been a while since my own kids were that age so I was unsure what to do with her. She mentioned she likes art, so I found my daughters old art set and let Kate at it. She had a wonderful time! She especially liked the unfinished unicorn statues which lead me to getting the glue and glitter out.

By the time Kate was finished she was covered in paint, glitter and everything else. I got her into the shower and did my best to clean any mess, but glitter has the tendency to stick to you no matter what and I didn't have time to wash Kate's clothes by the time her mother came back.

You would have thought I shaved Kate's hair by the look on my sisters face. She started screaming about how I was irresponsible to let Kate get so filthy, and before she stormed out, she said i'll never be babysitting Kate again. I did offer for her to drop the clothes off later for me to wash but she was too angry at this point.

Is she overreacting or AITA for not considering how she would feel about this?

Relevant Comments:

• OOP: In my opinion she was wearing play clothing, otherwise i wouldn't have agreed to a messy activity. Regarding the "you have kids so no excuse" comment, I encouraged them to make a mess while growing up. It made them happy and seeing their joy was worth me spending hours cleaning the floors when they were finished.
• OOP: I definitely would have returned Kate cleaner if I had more time. I think me and my sister just have a very different view of parenting, and maybe I didn't consider that enough. I would personally like to see my kids returned messy because it shows they had fun, but I can also see how that could be an inconvenience. That's why I did offer to clean/replace the clothes.
• OOP: I'll definitely keep in mind spare clothes if my sister changes her mind and lets me babysit Kate again. I might have old clothes laying around somewhere from when my girls were younger so at least that way she can't get angry when those clothes are messy.

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OOP's Judgement: NTA

UPDATE - AITA for letting my niece get dirty? (10 Jan 2023)

Despite all of the positive and supportive comments I got, I still felt awful and decided to buy Kate a few new outfits along with mess free toys in case my sister changes her mind. I also cleared out one of my daughters old rooms to use as a play room.

I dropped the clothes outside the door and left. She's still not talking to me, and i'm ok with that, but I hope Kate doesn't blame herself for this and I really hope to see her again. I'll give my sister some space and try again next week.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my last post and offered different ideas for things to do if there's ever a next time.

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Editor's Note: I am marking this as "concluded" as the issue has been solved to the extent that OOP could solve it.

Reminder: I am not the Original Poster. Originally posted by u/ileavethingsonplanes on r/AmItheAsshole.