can't help it

can't help it

Is unable to act differently. This phrase is often used to defend one's actions as involuntary or unavoidable. I don't want to be late to work every day, but I can't help it—the public transit strike has totally thrown off the train schedule. I'm always going to worry about you, sweetie, I can't help it—it's just what a mom does.
See also: help
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

(I) can't help it.

There is nothing I can do to help the situation.; That is the way it is.; There is nothing I can do. (Often in answer to a criticism.) Mary: Your hair is a mess. Sue: It's windy. I can't help it. Fred: I wish you'd quit coughing all the time. Sally: I can't help it. I wish I could too.
See also: help
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • beck and call
  • (one's) best foot forward
  • and how
  • and how!
  • be in your face
  • (as) sure as eggs (is eggs)
  • be waiting for the other shoe to drop
  • 57
  • and the rest
  • the day of reckoning
References in classic literature
"I don't think it important; it does not take hold of me, I can't help it," answered Levin, making out that what he saw was the bailiff, and that the bailiff seemed to be letting the peasants go off the ploughed land.
Anna Karenina
Well, we can't help it; we got to do the best we can with the materials we've got.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Say your friends--the girls who are supposed to love you no matter what--were making fun of how you say "wash." You always stick an "r" between the "a" and the "s"--you can't help it. If your BFF was mocking you and sticking an "r" in the center of every other word, you'd be bummed, right?
THE GIRLS' LIFE TO REAL LIFE WORST-CASE SCENARIOS
"I've never found the `I can't help it' argument very persuasive or very helpful in the politics of sexuality," she says.
I think it is a pathetic argument to say `I can't help it.' I don't think it exists for everybody, and I don't think it matters."
The sexual blur