After I said no, my entitled brother sent his kids in a taxi to my former address, not realizing I had already moved. The new tenant made a quick phone call that set off consequences my brother never saw coming and I watched everything unravel.

My brother Jason has never accepted “no” as a final answer.
To him, it’s just the opening round of a negotiation. If I refuse a favor, he keeps pushing—guilt, anger, persuasion—until I either give in or he finds a way to dump the responsibility on me anyway.

So when he called Thursday night and said, “Em, I need you this weekend,” I already knew where it was headed.

He and his wife Brittany had booked a Palm Springs trip. Their babysitter had supposedly “canceled,” which in Jason’s mind meant I was automatically assigned to childcare duty. Maddie is nine, Noah is six—sweet kids—but I’d just started a new job and was juggling weekend classes. My tiny windows of free time were the only thing keeping me balanced.

“I can’t,” I told him. “Work Saturday. Class Sunday.”