If you’re going out of town and you have pets, you probably need to find a pet sitter.

If the pet is a cat, which is a pretty independent animal, and the trip is short, just checking in on the pet might be enough.

In today’s story, a woman goes out of town with her boyfriend, and her mom volunteers to check on the cat.

When the woman got back, she was furious when she found out what her mom really did!

Let’s dive into all the details and see why she’s so upset…

AITA for banning my mom from our apartment after she keeps cleaning it?

I (27F) live with my boyfriend (26M) and our cat in a small 2 br apartment.

It’s only about a 10 minute drive from my parents house.

We went out of town recently and my mom (65F) offered to check in on our cat.

She has an automatic feeder so she doesn’t actually need anyone to come by, but I just worry that she’ll get bored so I said yes.

Mom did more than just check on the cat.

We got back and noticed that my mom had cleaned the apartment and there was a strange fishy smell.

Turns out she had decided to wash out the litterbox in the spare bathroom tub, which we never use.

The smell was coming from the pipes.

It’s important to note this is not the first time she’s done this, going as far as to put away clothes, vacuum, and make the bed.

It’s not like her mom didn’t know that she would be upset!

I find this to be a huge invasion of privacy and have told her in no uncertain terms to NOT DO IT.

She doesn’t listen.

She also has had a lifelong habit of snooping (through my purse, my car), telling my personal business to everyone, general overbearing mom things.

I’m an adult, and find this all to be exhausting.

Mom is banned from the apartment.

My boyfriend and I have decided to ban her from the apartment, meaning of course no longer accepting help with the cat.

My mom however doesn’t seem to register that she’s done anything wrong and just rolls her eyes about being “punished for being helpful”.

I’m at my wits end.

I’m not crazy, right?

She IS trying to be helpful and it comes from a place of love, but I am absolutely furious with her and feel like I need to set some sort of boundary.

So she is no longer welcome in our home for any reason.

AITA?

I can see both sides of this. Mom IS trying to be helpful, but OP has made it clear that she doesn’t want this kind of help. That makes the mom the one who messed up.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

This woman knows exactly how she feels…

She needs to change the locks.

This reader’s grandmother was even worse!

It doesn’t matter if she’s trying to help if she’s violating a boundary.

Here’s another vote for changing the locks.

I think they need to find a new cat sitter.

Mom needs to learn a lesson here.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.