Caring for children can be hard, even for seasoned parents with multiple children. First-time parenting is no joke, and for those who don’t have kids, they have no clue how fortunate they are to have all their time to themselves and nobody else to be responsible for day in and day out. One Oklahoma woman learned the hard way about parents and how fearful they can be to be apart from their children. She was babysitting for a friend, trying to do a good deed, when the friend became so clingy that she packed the kid up and brought them back home out of sheer frustration.
In a long and deep story shared to the AITAH Reddit thread by a user named Ok_kitchen6737, which we assume is short for Oklahoma, a tale of babysitting gone awry and motherhood causing drama between friends. The OP began her story by explaining that, first off, she is childless, and admits that that could be a factor in how the evening transpired. The OP decided to do a good deed and offered to watch her good friend’s newborn so the parents could take their older child out trick-or-treating, who was having trouble adjusting to the new baby in the home.
Right off the bat, this is something we all can empathize with and understand, and good on her for offering to help. After taking the little one for the night on Halloween, the good friend Facetimed her to check on the baby and see how things were going. That was fine, but then, there was another call, and another, and another, even during the supposed quality time the mother was supposed to be spending with her older child.
In fact, the calls persisted to the point that tensions grew as the OP tried to establish a firm boundary, and her friend kept ignoring it, calling over and over again, clearly unable to trust her friend and let her and the baby get to sleep.
Ultimately, the OP grew so frustrated that she packed the baby up in the night and brought it back to her friend’s house, which caused some serious issues. She created the thread seeking help and advice, and many of the comments had her back during the babysitting ordeal.
“You did the only thing that made sense. Your friend isn’t ready to be away from her baby and wasn’t letting you or baby sleep. NTA.”
“I tried this with my husband and I literally cannot sleep unless my baby is within at least 3 feet of my body 😂”
“Even a regulwar chill mom would have a hard time separating from a 4 month old for a night. That was a silly idea she had”
“Also!! You’re a damn good friend! Babysitting her newborn and answering calls every 30min!!!”
As you can see, while most people understand and support the OP, they also think the mom clearly isn’t a bad person or friend, but separating from a 4-month-old is a good idea on paper, but can be much harder to pull off so early in the newborn’s life.
