Woman says she was invited to a wedding… to babysit

“Decline that invitation.”

Mustafa Gatollari - Author
Woman says she's invited to a wedding...to babysit
Source: TikTok | @jamie.nelson98

Jamie Nelson (@jamie.nelson98) runs a TikTok account full of juicy Reddit stories collected from various subs on the popular social media site. She points to a post uploaded to the site’s r/amiwrong sub, in which a wedding guest who was initially happy to be invited to the nuptials realized there was a string attached.

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“Am I wrong? I got invited to a wedding, but there’s a catch. I was so excited to get invited to a wedding that I took the invitation out, but a little sticky note fell out and I looked at the invitation first,” she says, wiping her face with a tissue.

“It was such a beautiful invitation that I stuck it on my refrigerator, just like the artwork I thought it was.”

Jamie goes on to talk about the conditional wedding invitation the Redditor says she received. “It was addressed to my husband and I and I was absolutely blown away. I love weddings so much that they make me super tearful and just so happy. All that joy and new beginnings and all that love that’s just spread at a wedding.”

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Source: TikTok | @jamie.nelson98

The woman went on to say that she loves weddings so much that she “was even a wedding singer.” “That’s how much I love weddings. So here’s where it gets really weird. I picked up the invitation and it said that even though my husband was invited to the wedding, I had to sit in a room with a bunch of other women who were invited to watch the kids.”

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As it turns out, the invitation wasn’t so much for Jamie to go off and enjoy himself, but for her to be a free babysitter for the entire evening. “There’s a special room in the church where the kids would be, and I would be there for everything. Literally all the time, but I would still have to get dressed for a wedding, in case I was in any of the photos,” she says.

“I was going to be with the kids during my dinner time and during the ceremony. And then there was a link for their gift registry, oh, and to add our meals for me and my husband it would be $100 per person. And then there was a link to pre-pay for our meals and RSVP,” she says, indicating that the people hosting the wedding wanted their guests to pre-pay for their food.

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invited to babysit at wedding
Source: TikTok | @jamie.nelson98

She added that she “uses a walker to walk long distances” and that she “would love to sit in a room and watch the kids,” but that her condition wasn’t exactly the best solution for looking after her children. If she had to “move quickly … in case they choked” or if she had to “keep them from falling,” she would be “pretty much useless at that point.”

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At this point, Jamie’s first video about the story ends, but in the Reddit post, the user also points out that he/she is 50 years old and that since he/she knows the family in question, it would make more sense for the man to take care of the children, especially since he/she has offered to do so.

The problem is, the invitation specifically stated that childcare had to be provided by female guests. While he was more than willing to make sure the children were not in trouble at the wedding so that his partner could enjoy the festivities, she doubted that the wedding organizers would even let him do it.

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invited to babysit at wedding
Source: TikTok | @jamie.nelson98

After asking some questions and giving some updates on Reddit, she finally discovered why the bride’s mother, whom she had known for a long time, wanted her to supervise the children during the wedding and not watch the ceremony.

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That’s because they were afraid that if she came to the wedding in a wheelchair, she would end up ruining the aesthetic of the photos. She told the mother that she could easily sit in the pews.

The mother was not happy with that answer. She said that her oxygen tank would stick out a lot and take up too much space.

But the Redditor pushed back, saying that her oxygen tank wouldn’t show up in photos at all, since it’s a backpack-like device that she can hold on her lap or place between her feet.

Unfortunately, the mother still thought the oxygen would be a ‘distraction’ and ended up exchanging a few more ‘words’ with the woman before hanging up.

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invited to babysit at wedding
Source: TikTok | @jamie.nelson98

One Reddit user wrote that she should just back out of the wedding altogether: “Send your and your husband’s condolences and don’t send a gift. These people are clearly not the friends you thought they were. Everything about this invite is just wrong.”

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On TikTok, someone commented on Jamie’s video, saying he was shocked that guests had to pay for their own dinner in advance: “As soon as you had to pay for dinner, you were like, No. Babysitting is a straight no.”

Someone else also found the move inappropriate: “That’s so tacky. I would decline the invitation and never speak to them again.”

And then someone came up with a way to get revenge on the wedding organizers: “You have to decline the offer, but say that you still want to give them a gift. Include a link where they can pay for their own wedding gift.”