AITA for not wanting to take care of my mom after surgery?

Not the A-hole

I talked to my mom for the first time in months last week because she was in the hospital for some serious stomach/colon issues. We hadn’t been talking previously because she got mad at me about some family estate drama that had nothing to do with her. She is a real piece of work, she is a complete narcissist who doesn’t really give a shit about me. I live 12 hours drive time from her for a reason - she’s okay when kept at a distance.

Now she’s gone through this really intense surgery and is going to be pretty bedridden and helpless for a while. My immediate thought was to drop everything and take care of her for a while because that’s what a good kid does, right? The thing is, I have a lot of my own stuff going on. I have two dogs, soon to be three since I’ll be taking her GSD. I just started my own very small puttering business. My partner is super sweet and is supportive of whatever I choose to do, although he supports my thought that I shouldn’t really throw away weeks/months to take care of her when she probably wouldn’t do the same for me.

For context, she doesn’t have a partner. My dad and her separated when I was 6 and he has since passed away (rip best dad ever). She had a long term boyfriend a while ago but that’s over. She has a small community of close neighbors who will help her in a pinch... annnnd there’s my half brother. Hes 4 years older than me (I’m early 30s) and is absolutely useless, but he lives in the same city as her. They’ve relied on each other sooo many times, I feel like I kinda just want to leave this in his hands? But he’s really a shitty person, he only ever really does something for my mom to get something from her (which in this case will be nothing because she’s literally bedridden). I’ve looked into publicly funded home care and she can qualify for atleast a month of that (yay Canada!) so I can make sure she’s looked after. I still feel like I should be doing more though. I think I’m being a little too empathetic... but she’s also my mom, and she’s in a bind. AITA for not wanting to take care of her for more than maybe 3-4 days?

Posted May 7, 2019, 5:49 PM UTC

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