A few days before Christmas my sister visited to say she had an idea. She asked me to do 3 designs for her friends to take ownership of and post to teespring.com and repay me from the profits. I hated the idea but played along so she’d leave. She then proposed designing for her be an ongoing thing. Today she returned and I told her the hard drive failed and lost Photoshop and Illustrator. We aren’t as close as before, but I might have been able to tell her I found it distasteful she wanted me to do work for her because she wanted money, and I feel that she would flake out rather than pay me.
That’s my confession that should be to her. There’s the feeling of guilt but also of having dodged something.
She’s asking for 3 designs that I should do because we’re family, claims she’ll pay me ( she won’t ), and that this be an ongoing thing. The last part is important because my time belongs to me. She could make her own balloon animal t-shirts. She could learn Illustrator and do it herself.
If you dont want to do it then respectfully tell her you dont want to. Why lie? As long as you’re nice and respectful about not doing it then if she gets mad that’s on her.
Have you thought about doing it if they gave you a down payment of some sort? That way if they end up not paying you you’ll at least have something.
At the end of the day it’s your right to refuse to do the designs, but telling your sister the truth would be the decent thing to do. I find that one lie never stays one lie, it turns into a convoluted spider web of lies that is almost impossible to keep track of.
You aren’t obligated to do anything just because you are family. If she’s using that as a way to make you feel guilt she is trying to use you and that’s wrong. I would say no simply based on trying to be manipulated to make someone else money. She’s trying to take away your power to say “no”.