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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/SociallyAwkwardAITA on 2023-09-30 20:39:32.

I (25F) live in a new fairly upscale apartment so all the apartments are not filled yet. I have a dog who I take out for walks and thus sometimes interact with my neighbors.

My neighbor who’s name is Becca, I’ve talked to several times while taking my dog out but otherwise we don’t really have a relationship. Becca has a daughter who was really shy so I didn’t press her on her name or anything(so we’ll call her Sara.) and I’ve only seen her about half the time I’ve seen Becca.

Anyway yesterday Becca came to my door and asked if I could watch Sara for the day since she had to go to a meeting in a main town about 2 hours away. I said no. She asked why so I told her I have ADD and I would be too focused on my work. She tried to convince me by saying her daughter would be quiet and just watch TV all day.

Sidenote the real reason I didn’t want to watch the kid is that I am an awkward person around adults and I’m especially an awkward person around kids because neither of us can read social cues. I also have some shitty childhood parentification trauma so I’m really not a kid person. Lastly I plot out everything I’m going to that day before I get out of bed and the kid would mess that up and while I can deal with that. It ruins my whole day.

I still said no and closed the door and went to work. About an hour later I went to walk my dog and Sara is sitting outside my door. She says her Mom said I would take care of her today.

I’m not totally heartless and i do actually like kids, im just awkward around them. So I let her in my apartment and told her after she washed her hands (I could see some sort of residue on them) she could go sit on my couch.

While I was walking my dog I called the non-emergency line and told them that my neighbor abandoned her kid at my apartment. My city is woefully underfunded for police so they said it would be awhile before they sent an officer out since she was currently fine.

I went back to my apartment and info-dumped about dogs to a seven(?) Year old for like an hour and then we made cookies before the cops arrived and took my statement and hers and told her it wasn’t her fault and all that jazz. Anyway they made some calls and as it turns out Becca has two Moms so they were gonna take her to the other one.

Becca that night came and banged on my door till I opened and then proceeded to yell at me. I’m pretty used to older women yelling at me so I just blocked myself out of it and said okay at the right times in a very neutral tone until one of the aparment guys saw what was happening and got her to back off.

Now I’m wondering if social rules dictated me to take care of her even though I said no; making me the AH in this situation for calling the police? Someone else taped a note to my door criticizing me for breaking up a family and ruining the Moms life and calling me a horrible person.