Navigating parenthood is a tricky situation, especially when the media is full of horror stories gradually bewitching you into thinking that your kids are safe with nobody but yourself.

All those stories about teachers, babysitters, other kids’ parents, janitors, and genuine strangers that are poised to predate on your kids?

They sell papers, generate ad revenue, and cause the anxiety in your chest to bubble up, your protective inclinations towards your kids going into overdrive.

And the mom in this story is as guilty of that as any of us.

Read on to find out how her daughter’s friend’s father got her parental spidey-senses tingling.

AITA for not letting my daughter sleep over at her friend’s house, because the dad tried to get me to spend the night too?

I’m a 34-year-old single mom, and my daughter, let’s call her “Anne,” is 12.

She met a girl, “Lisa” (also 12), at school this year and they’ve become pretty good friends.

They’ve been hanging out after school once or twice a week for a few months now, usually at our place because it’s pretty close to their school.

I’ve met Lisa’s dad, “Frank” (aged around 40), a few times and he seems like a nice guy.

He’s a single dad, and his ex moved across the country and only sees Lisa for a few weeks over the summer, so I’ve never met her.

I’ve had no problems with him, no red flags before this, but his recent behavior struck me as… kinda creepy?

Uh-oh. Let’s see what Frank did to create this impression.

Last week Lisa was over after school, and Frank came to pick her up.

When I answered the door he said he wanted to talk to me about something.

So I invited him in, and he told me that Lisa really wants to have Anne sleep over at their house.

I didn’t say anything right away, honestly I was mostly considering schedules and stuff, but he seemed like he immediately got, like, defensive or something?

Not sure that’s quite the right description, but close enough.

Read on to see how his speech got weirder and weirder.

He started talking about how it’s been tough for Lisa to make friends since the divorce, and how they had to sell their house to buy his ex out of the value.

That meant moving to a new school district, and he said he’s really glad that her and Anne are such good friends.

Then he got kinda awkward and stammered about how he understands that I might have concerns about “safety” and that “maybe it would be best if you [I] spent the night too”.

Yikes! Let’s see how this mom felt about his odd request.

That caught me off guard so I clarified, and yes, he meant for both me and Anne to come sleep over at their place.

Which… I don’t know, that’s weird right?

Like, I’m single and all, and so is he as far as I know, but that just makes me feel even more like he has some ulterior motive for asking.

I wasn’t even really worried that much about letting Anne go over, like I said he seemed like a nice, normal guy up until this.

But trying to get me to come spend the night just felt… icky.

Like he’s trying to get in my pants or something.

So she tried to figure out how to respond.

I didn’t want to make things too awkward or make him angry or anything, so I didn’t deny him outright, I just made some noncommittal noises about my schedule and work being so busy and stuff, and that seemed good enough for the moment.

After they left I told Anne absolutely not, and that I needed her to let me know if he did or said anything else weird.

So now of course she thinks I’m a horrible, but that’s not surprising for a preteen.

What did surprise me, was that when I told one of my close friends about it, she said that I was taking it all wrong and that he probably meant it sincerely as a way to make me comfortable with my preteen daughter spending the night, so I’d know he wasn’t a predator or something?

That really feels like a stretch to me, but generally this friend has a pretty good head on her shoulders and is someone I go to for advice on a lot of things, so I’m wondering if I really did misread the situation or something?

AITA?

It’s no wonder that this mom felt weird about it – in both regards he approached it as an awkward dad, after all.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this.

This person empathized with Frank, and suggested the former situation was likely true.

While this dad offered a potential solution.

And most people stuck up for Frank and how difficult his situation was to navigate.

Poor Frank.

His approach was clumsy but innocent, and it doesn’t seem like he has ulterior motives.

It seems more like something he’s been in his head, stressing himself out over for weeks; hopefully this mom gives him a chance and puts her trust in his red-flag-free fatherhood.

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.