Childcare is an incredibly expensive thing.

Nothing about it is free except for maybe the supervision part, and even then, someone is paying with their time, stress level, etc.

It can be a lifesaver to have a helping hand, and nearby family often fills that role.

But when is that justified, and when is it not?

AITA daughter sleeping over at grandparents

My wife and I have a 2.5 year old daughter.

My wife was out of state the last few days for work, so I was on solo dad duty, which is no problem and I do it all the time.

During one of her days away, I got booked into an emergency eye appointment at 6:15pm, as I was having some vision issues.

I also had booked on the same night a rec sporting event at 8pm, that I was going to get a babysitter for.

My in laws, who live at the next house over, also had invited my daughter and I over for supper at 5pm the same day.

Enter grandma and grandpa.

The day before all of this, I asked my in laws if they wanted to have a sleepover with my daughter.

I gave them a few options and laid out what I had going on, and said if not, it was ok.

I thought that maybe I could save some money by not paying a babysitter if they had her over for a sleepover.

They pondered for a day, talked it over and agreed to keep my daughter for the night, so I could go to my eye appointment and the rec sporting event.

I texted them many times throughout the night, asking if everything was ok and if they needed me to come pick her up, which they said everything was fine.

The only thing they were concerned about was that my father in law gets up at 5:30am to do the farm chores, and they thought that my daughter may wake up at the same time, which would not be fair to her for going to daycare the next day.

And now it’s a big fight.

Well, my daughter didn’t wake up and slept right through, did fantastic and everything I thought was good.

My wife comes home from her trip and makes me feel like the biggest [jerk] for asking her parents to have a sleepover while I went and played sports.

She called me selfish and said that I gave them no other option but to take her, and they didn’t want to have her over.

Had major issues with what I did which caused a massive fight between us.

I said to my wife that If they didn’t want to have her over for a sleepover, they should of just told me no.

AITA here?????

Let’s see what the comments say:

Is this a gender thing?

A few subtle details, though:

Kinda seems like they should have just said no?

Kids will give you endless things to argue about.

These two need to chill.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.