I banned my parents from babysitting after they made this 'fatal' mistake

"You are not obligated to allow your parents to have your kids without you there. Even if they hadn't been so grossly irresponsible."

A woman moved to a new state with her husband, leaving her indoor cat with her parents. But after her cat was let outside with fatal consequences, she vowed never to let them babysit their future kids.

"When we were moving down, I had a cat named Kylo," she explained to Reddit.

"Cutest little tuxedo cat with the personality to follow. I had to house Kylo with my parents until my husband, and I could afford to bring him home."

She added: "I had had a few cats pass away from being outdoor cats; Shy from a hit and run, Ashlee from a nasty neighbour poisoning her, and Pumpkin running away."

So, when she dropped Kylo off at her parents', she explicitly told them to keep him inside and that he was strictly an indoor cat.

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Her dad brushed off the tragic news

"I begged and begged them to respect my decision with my cat, and I had thought they had… but then I received a phone call from my father saying that Kylo was hit by a car and killed today.

"In the midstsof sobbing and yelling at my dad, 'I TOLD YOU TO KEEP HIM INSIDE!!' my dad said, 'oh stop… it’s just a cat' so I promptly hung up on him."

After a "good cry", her and her husband decided to keep her parents from watching their future grandchildren without them there, "no matter the circumstances."

"If they can’t respect my one wish with my cat, what is to say they will respect my wishes with my children?" she said. "So AITAH for not allowing my parents the chance to babysit their grandchildren?"

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"They broke a boundary"

In the comments, people wholeheartedly backed up the OP. "NTA," declared the top commenter, whose comment has 6.3k likes. "What if your children have allergies or are intolerant of certain foods? The old, 'Oh, but he/she/they were curious', they just wanted a taste (of a forbidden food item), won’t work a second time."

Someone else advised the woman, "When you have kids, you get to decide who watches them, supervised or not. You are not obligated to allow your parents to have your kids without you there.

"Even if they hadn't been so grossly irresponsible and so damn cold about your cat. Don't start life as a parent thinking your parents have any rights or say in anything. What you say goes. Always."

Image: IStock

"You said a boundary and they broke it," another agreed.

"And it was really upsetting what your dad said. I don't blame you if you want to keep your child away from them as many have stated they broke the boundaries and didn't respect you, I'm so sorry for your loss."

"'Your child ran off. Don’t worry, you can make another' is the attitude they seem to have. NTA. Some pets mean most of all things to some people," someone else concluded. 

Originally published as I banned my parents from babysitting after they made this 'fatal' mistake