Counting on those you love

In my mind, I can count on my family.

But I found out recently that there is one person who I can't count on.

I hate to say it, but my youngest sister is kind of unreliable.

My youngest sister is my kids' emergency call list.

My youngest sister lives about a block away from me.

This means she's the person I'd call if something happens with the kids.

A couple weeks ago, the Princess got a fever at school.

I called my sister.



Me: Hey, where are you?
Sister: I'm at Mom's.
Me: At Mom's?
Sister: Yeah. And my eyes are dilated.
Me: Oh. Okay. 
Sister: Why?
Me: Because the Princess has a fever and she needs to get picked up.
Sister: Oh. I can't because my eyes are dilated.

I ended up leaving work a few hours early so that I could pick up my daughter.

Then this week I was working overtime and realized that I was leaving too late from work. It was 5:30pm when I was walking out. The kids' afterschool care stops at 6pm. I work about 20 miles away from the school. And there was the evening traffic to contend with. As I walked to my car, I called my youngest sister.

Me: Hey there.
Sister: Hi!
Me: Where you at?
Sister: I'm at Mom's.
Me: At Mom's?
Sister: Yeah. 
Me: Oh. Okay.
Sister: Why?
Me: I'm just leaving work. I was going to ask if you could pick them up. But you're at Mom's so there's no way you can get to them any faster than me. 
Sister: Oh. Sorry.

Sorry? That's all fine and dandy but DANG! You might think I'm being petty, but I'm talking from my own perspective. She's still on vacation from school right now for 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS! The TWO times I call her because I need her she's not available. She's at our Mom's house! Why is she at my Mom's house? My Mom takes care of my youngest sister's daughter while my sister is at school. And I think that my sister takes advantage of my Mom's generosity. When she wants to do errands, she'll drop her daughter off. When she has an appointment, she drops her daughter off. When she feels under the weather, she drops her daughter off. Rather than organizing her time to be in synch with her husband, she just drops her daughter off. ARGH! But alas, that's a whole issue that will never be resolved until my Mom is able to say NO.

Anyway, I'm just ding-dang disappointed in my sister. She's a loving and kind person, but she just isn't willing to go out of her way to help others. I've known that for a while but these last couple of crunch-time moments for me has pretty much solidified my view on her reliability.

Has there been anyone that you love that has recently disappointed you?