Brother Gets Kicked Out After Letting His Pregnant Sister-in-Law Shovel Snow

A snowstorm transformed into a family meltdown in minutes.

When the walk outside your house turns into a hazard zone, you don’t expect the person with the free room and utilities to shrug and say “not my job”. That’s exactly what happened to one Redditor whose younger brother lives rent-free while he and his wife prepare for their first child.

She’s heavily pregnant, he’s working extra hours to stabilize his job before the baby comes, and the younger brother’s trade dries up in winter, so he’s home playing games and going out with friends. Then three days of heavy snow hit, kids struggle to get by the school corner lot, and instead of stepping up, the brother acts like shoveling is the homeowner’s duty.

The wife ends up doing it herself. The husband comes home, blows up, and kicks him out.

Now, read the full story:

Wow! This is the kind of sibling dynamic that makes you wince. There is so much going on: the looming baby, the wife doing heavy physical labour when she clearly shouldn’t be, the brother assuming “rent free” means “zero responsibility”.

I felt for the husband because he’s juggling a merger at work, a baby about to come, and suddenly he has home-front chaos added. I also felt for the pregnant wife, who did the shovelling despite clearly being at risk of exhaustion or worse. The brother, in my view, treated the home like a hotel. That annoyed me as a writer and as a human.

This feeling of imbalance, of one person taking the hit while another opts out, is textbook for relationship stress and family boundary failure.

The core issue here revolves around fairness, contribution and expectations. The brother has enjoyed “rent-free board” since July. That implies a kind of informal contract: you live here, you’ll contribute. That contract got ignored. Meanwhile, the homeowner couple face higher stakes now: a new baby, heavy workload at his job, physical risk for her. So it’s about context and stake size too.

Experts agree that sharing household work fosters team-feeling and reduces resentment. One site explains: “When only one or two members of the family are doing all the chores, it can lead to feeling overwhelmed and possibly frustrated.” In other words: if you live rent-free, contribution becomes part of the unspoken currency.

In Canada, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada guideline recommends pregnant women should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. But “moderate” doesn’t mean hauling heavy snow in freezing conditions. The general message: avoid undue physical strain and sudden heavy labour, especially late in pregnancy.

The sibling’s comment – “it’s the homeowner’s job” – fails on both moral and practical levels. Morally because he benefits and doesn’t help; practically because the duty of property upkeep (e.g., clearing snow near a school) falls on the resident-owners by civic law in many places.

Actionable advice:

1. Define responsibilities clearly. The couple should draw up a simple “house rules” list for any boarder: what chores, when, consequences. Lack of clarity invites conflict.

2. Match contribution to stakes. The husband and wife’s stakes are high (new baby, career demands, health risks). So they need reliable support, not token gesture. The brother needs to see that too.

3. Enforce softly then clearly. They gave him a chance (to come back if he apologises and contributes). That’s fair. If he stays away, fine – he may learn.

4. Perspective shift. The brother might feel “I’m not the homeowner”. But as a resident enjoying free rent and board during slow-trade months, his fairness ledger is high. He owes more, not less.

5. Prevent escalation. The wife’s exhaustion and risk should trigger a red flag for “Need help now”. The husband responded. That’s legitimate.

This was more than “someone didn’t shovel snow”. It was a breaking point in latent imbalance. The moment the pregnant wife ended up handling the heavy duty alone, the informal contract cracked. The couple enforced boundaries. They acted on context and consequence. The brother now must decide: step up or move on.

Check out how the community responded:

Team OP who thought the brother clearly dropped the ball and deserved the push-out.

Harsh take-no-excuses replies calling the brother lazy and entitled.

Some nuance replies about broader system and expectation.

So, the consensus seems to lean heavily toward the OP being right to act. He and his wife were carrying the risk, the stake and the burden and the guest cancelled his duty. The decision to ask him to leave and set conditions for his return reflects fairness, not cruelty.

What do you think? Was the brother given enough chance, or should the OP have acted differently? Would you let a 26-year-old rent-free boarder skip chores when a pregnant woman ended up doing the heavy lifting?