AITA Friend Wants Help With A Project But I’d Rather Spend Time With Family

Howdy Everyone,

I have a friend who volunteers at a local business by doing live video production for events the business runs. They also edit the recordings which are made available to event goers for purchase a few weeks after the event. Usually, it’s just my friend doing the whole production, but in the last year I’ve started to help them out by driving up on a Saturday or Sunday and operating some of the equipment for the day. The whole production, rehearsals + event, usually lasts 8 hours each day (Sat, Sun).

Recently, this friend has asked me to take over the event for them for one full weekend coming up since they’ll be unavailable that weekend. This would include planning, transport of gear, rehearsing, and running/cutting the show for Saturday and Sunday. My dilemma is that I’m not sure I want to take over the full production as I would rather spend that weekend with my family (significant other and child). I feel guilty saying no though because I don’t know if he’ll be able to get a replacement for me, and I don’t know what kind of situation that puts the business in. I also feel horrible for leaving my family for basically a solid weekend. In the past when I’ve helped my friend with these events, I leave early in the morning and get home late so I only get to see the family for a few hours.

Some other things:

The event is about 1 hour away from my place with no traffic.

My friend does pay me for my time, which I appreciate but the money doesn’t matter to me. I care about the time spent working the event and not spent with my family.

The reason I’m so concerned about time is because my commute to my full time job is really long, leaving hardly any time with the family on the weekends. I’m trying to find other jobs. Hopefully something closer to home manifests.