In today’s story, a dad let’s his brother and sister-in-law babysit, but they played some games that made his son cry. He doesn’t find it funny.

Let’s see what happened…

AITA for not laughing at my sister-in-law making my son cry?

My sis-in-law and her husband looked after my 7 year old overnight for the first time a few weeks ago.

My son was excited leading up to it as he was going to spend the night staying at “his favourite uncles house”.

The next day my sis-in-law was telling us how funny it was when they made the uncle hide and pretended he’d left for the night.

This wasn’t a normal game of hide and seek.

My son took it as a joke for a while and kept saying “haha no he hasn’t” but they kept it up until “he had a mini meltdown” and started crying.

They (this was the second sis-in-law who was present) also did this by hiding his Nintendo Switch and pretended they sold it.

My sis-in-law was laughing her head off while sat there just looking a bit confused/surprised at what was funny.

The sis-in-law seems to think her laughter is appropriate.

SIL said something along the lines of “you don’t have to look so traumatised!”

And, knowing how sensitive my wife’s side of the family can be, I just replied “sorry, but I don’t find those kind of jokes funny”.

SIL then exploded in front of everyone and went on a rant about how she doesn’t feel like she can treat my son how she wants and doesn’t tell him off how she wants because of me.

OP added some background info…

For context, when my son was born he was very premature and in intensive care for the first three weeks, so for the first year I absolutely was a bit overprotective.

I also got my sis in laws back up when my son fell over when he was three and screamed and I went running over asking if he was ok, even though his other aunt was already there and that one exploded then too shouting that “she knows how to look after a child!”.

He’s wondering if his in-laws are actually right.

Again then I was a bit confused that asking my son who was crying and distressed if he was ok should get such an angry reaction.

I’m now paranoid about how I parent in front on my in-laws. So, am I the asshole? Maybe I’m missing something and should see their pov?

Parenting is hard enough without having your in-laws make you feel like everything you do is wrong, especially when they seems to think it’s okay to laugh at a child who is freaking out.

Let’s see how Reddit responded…

This person offered a suggestion to show the sis-in-law how the little boy feels.

This person wouldn’t leave the boy alone with the sis-in-law ever again.

This reader is on OP’s side as well.

It sounds like it’s time to find a new babysitter!

You know…one who doesn’t make children cry for fun.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.