My brother-in-law treats me like the family’s free IT department
Editors' DilemmaOctober 28, 2026· Be the first to vote
A story made up by our editors to get the debate going, not a real account.
My side
I work in IT. For my in-laws, that means I can fix anything: printers, Wi-Fi routers, TVs, phones that “make weird noises.” My brother-in-law is the champion. At every family get-together, he shows up with his laptop under his arm, and I spend the afternoon installing updates while everyone else plays cards. At my father-in-law’s last birthday, I said no. Nicely, but no. I gave him the address of a repair shop nearby. He sulked through the whole meal, and my mother-in-law said I wasn’t “very family-minded.”
Their side
My brother-in-law thinks family members help each other out. He helped me put in my whole kitchen and change my tires, without ever keeping score. For someone like me, fixing his computer takes ten minutes, while a repair shop would cost him a lot. According to him, I’m mostly saying no because I’d rather play cards.
So, who's wrong?
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