Have you ever had to choose between spending an anniversary with a significant other or babysitting for family?

What did you tell your brother?

Did you already have plans with your boyfriend?

These details are critical in helping you decide, in my opinion.

Saturday is only one day away, so if you made a commitment to either your boyfriend or your brother, it’s kind of last minute to bow out at this time.

Combine the two.
Take your boyfriend and the children to an amusement park.

I once had to choose between an anniversary with a very old friend and another commitment. I chose the latter and realized immediately I had made a big mistake. That was a loooong time ago, and my friend hasn’t totally forgiven me to this day.

Yeah do both. You and b/f spend a day with the kids. It’s a lot of fun, but don’t be surprised if you’re both exhausted.

babysit.

Family is forever. Boyfriends come and go.

Further, what kind of a boyfriend would he be if he made you choose between him and your familial responsibilities.

With whom did you make plans first? In my mind, that’s who “wins.” The other option is to celebrate with your boyfriend on Sunday if he’s not keen on the kids being around.

I would do both or ask my boyfriend if we could schedule the celebration on another day.

I made plans with my boyfriend a long time ago, but I only learned my brother needed a babysitter this week. I’m not sure exactly when to expect him to come pick me up if he does, but I am hoping I will be able to do both.

Since it’s just a dating anniversary and not a wedding anniversary I would help your brother. You can celebrate with your boyfriend the next day.

You help your brother.

Your plans can change without affecting anyone else. Your brother cannot move the date of the wedding to accommodate your schedule.

Whatever you were going to do with your boyfriend can, I’m sure, happen the next day or following weekend.

Your boyfriend doesn’t want to spend the day with your nephew.

I never said that he did. Again, please stop making assumptions. I asked the question I did because I know Fluther as a place with people who give helpful answers, but then you have to show up and make all kinds of assumptions about me and my relationship. And post misleading posts… making it hard for me to get answers I actually need. I don’t appreciate it at all.

[As a mod] Let’s take it down a notch, please.

Thank you.

(Wondering why anyone would need to flame-bait on a question like this.)

I would also suggest you babysit for your brother on SAturday since a wedding is pretty important and cannot be moved and either include your boyfriend or make special plans with him for another day.

Boyfriends may come and go, but brothers are forever. In my family, anniversaries can be celebrated any day it is convenient. There is no magic about celebrating an anniversary on the exact same day of the year.

Hubby and I celebrate our wedding anniversary on Labor Day weekend most of the time, no matter what day it falls on. Over the years, we have sometimes had to move the celebration because of finances or other things. We just celebrated our 38th.

It is the same with children’s birthdays. If they fall in the middle of the week, the child has to wait for the week end. As I said, there is no magic in the exact day. Celebrate your anniversary the next day.

Did someone just say “brothers are forever”? Now that’s flame-bait!! Haha

@viragorider Well, most people here know me, so it is OK.

Sometimes only in memory – RIP Ken

I’ve never really celebrated an anniversary before with a boyfriend that I can remember, so I was really looking forward to it. That being said, I also care about my brother’s family. His children are awesome, but I don’t get to see them much.

My issues are of course 1) I made plans with my boyfriend first, so I know in my heart that he should be a priority, but 2) my brother is family. That is why this felt so difficult for me. If it was someone I wasn’t related to who needed a babysitter, it would be an easy decision. I wish I could be two places at once. Neither are people I want to say “No” to because I respect and value them both.

Seems like it might work out to see my boyfriend in the morning/early afternoon and then babysit for my brother in the evening. My brother said he’d pick me up at 6:30 p.m. if I babysit for him. My SO and I planned to go to the Star Wars exhibit at one of the museums here and perhaps have a picnic later. The museum is opened from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. On the off chance that tickets to the exhibit are sold out that day, he said we could just have the picnic and go on another day before it’s gone.

Turns out we have another problem…

“By Public Transportation

OC Transpo route 129 brings you to the Museum but please check the route schedule and map carefully as not all 129 buses will bring you directly to the Museum’s doorstep.” ~ How to Get Here

“No weekend service to the Canadian Aviation Museum after Sept 2.” ~ OC Transpo – Routes & Maps

Wasn’t expecting that at all…

does that affect you getting to the museum, or just getting back?
in case of the former, you could ask your brother to pick you up at the museum.

Likely both if we don’t find a good way to get there via bus. I tried to travel plan it out and it came back with no results, which confused me. I guess I took the summer for granted…

The travel planner comes back with this result: “The travel service could not locate a plan with the given criteria. Please enter another.”

you could try finding a route that goes close to there and walk the rest.

Alright. :)

He sent me a FB message saying he saw something on Reddit where someone asked how to bus there. I’ll ask him for the thread.

EDIT: Link here. Hopefully the advice is helpful for weekends, too. I’ll check on OC Transpo’s website just in case.

Update: I ended up seeing my boyfriend in the morning/afternoon and babysitting at night. It worked out in such a way that my boyfriend and I could celebrate our anniversary together and I could babysit my brother’s 3 sons for him! Plus my boyfriend and I both received vouchers that are valid until November 1st to get 50% off at 2 museums and free admission to the Aviation and Space Museum. I’m assuming we can go to them all with them based on the way the vouchers are worded…, but if not, it’s still a pretty good deal. :) As an added plus, my brother’s family went to the same exhibit themselves before I did, so it ended up being a great conversation starter! :D

PS – Thanks everyone. :) It was very nice to find a way to make everyone happy! My boyfriend, his mother (she gets to see more pictures of her son who rarely ever has his photo taken! haha… plus, she is happy for him, too, of course… and Star Wars is pretty big in his family), my brother, my sister-in-law, and my 3 nephews. :)

PPS – My boyfriend decided to take the Reddit user’s advice on the way there instead of following the advice on Google Maps… turned out to be pretty accurate information. Lead to a bikepath, too… so we didn’t have to do any jaywalking on that short cut that I can remember. :D

Good for you!!!!!!

@AnonymousWoman – Wonderful! It’s great when things work out, isn’t it? :-)