She came to wrangle kids, not mop up mystery Play-Doh from last week.

But when a dad gave her a very pointed tutorial on vacuuming a mess she didn’t make—before her shift even started—she had to decide: bite her tongue or speak up?

Spoiler: she chose ✨graceful sarcasm✨.

AITAH for thinking it was weird that a dad I babysit for implied I should vacuum a mess I didn’t make?

I (18F) have been babysitting for the same family for a few years.

The parents are generally nice, and I’ve never had issues until this weird interaction that’s been stuck in my head.

The other day, I accidentally arrived about 15 minutes early.

It was a little awkward, but the mom was nice about it and asked if I could go to the basement to play with one of the kids until she finished getting ready.

Aye aye.

Before going downstairs, I asked the dad (let’s call him Robert) if I could keep my shoes on—last time, I got Play-Doh on my socks.

He looked confused, so I explained, and he said yeah.

Then he follows me downstairs, opens a closet, pulls out a vacuum, and proceeds to show me how to use it—specifically pointing out how to clean up dried Play-Doh from the floor.

Alrighty…

At first, I thought maybe he was trying to prevent me from tracking in dirt or something.

But no, he was clearly hinting that I should clean the Play-Doh.

For context: this was not a mess from that day, and I wasn’t even officially on the clock yet.

It had clearly been there from a previous day.

I’ve always been fine with cleaning up minor messes the kids make while I’m working, but this felt different.

Like I was being assigned a chore that wasn’t mine, in this super weird, roundabout way.

He never actually asked me to vacuum. He just “demonstrated” how to clean the mess, as if I was supposed to take the hint. I didn’t want to cause tension, so I just smiled and nodded.

Noted.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

About 15 minutes later, I heard him and the mom in the kitchen, and I (in my nicest, most polite voice) called up:

“Excuse me, Robert, do you want me to vacuum underneath the table too?”

Immediately, I hear the mom go, “Vacuum?” and within seconds, Robert comes rushing down to the basement with this giant awkward smile and says, “Oh no, you don’t need to vacuum” and “I forgot to put it away after taking it out.” He was very flustered.

Ha!

Complete backpedal. I think he realized how it sounded when someone else heard it.

The whole thing gave me the ick, but I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Now I’m wondering: was I out of line for saying something in front of the mom like that?

I wasn’t trying to be snarky, but I was definitely trying to make a point.

It just felt weird and manipulative, and I didn’t want it to happen again.

At the same time, I don’t want to be seen as dramatic or disrespectful.

When a “helpful tip” starts looking like a passive-aggressive request, it’s no wonder she responded with a well-timed question.

And Reddit is on her side.

This person says she handled it just right.

And this person just can’t get over how weird the whole encounter was.

He and his wife might have a weird dynamic, too.

And now he’s probably in deeper trouble.

She came to babysit, not deep-clean…

Good for her for calling him out.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.