After giving his daughter’s new friend a ride to school, one dad felt uneasy when the girl’s single mom—whom they’d just met—asked for the favor again days later.

When he told his wife to set some boundaries, she called him overly cautious. Now he’s questioning whether he’s being protective or just paranoid.

Read on for the story.

AITAH for telling my wife not to help a single mom again this week

So today my wife and I drove our daughter’s friend to school for the first time.

Our daughter is in early elementary school and has a sweet little friend that she has known for a couple of years now.

My wife and the friend’s mom just exchanged numbers this past friday.

We don’t know much about the friend’s mom. Friday was the first time she met/saw my wife ever. We know she is a single mom and has a new boyfriend.

Also that she and her kids have had a difficult life and have had to move around a lot.

Poor kiddo.

After exchanging numbers on Friday, she called my wife on Saturday to schedule a playdate for our daughters at our house that same day. The girls met up and had a great time.

On Sunday night the mother texted my wife late, around 10:30pm asking if we would be willing to take her daughter to school Monday morning.

I work night shift and get home just in time to drive our daughter to school. When I got off of work my wife let me know that we would be driving our daughter’s friend to school. I had no problem with it.

We made sure the friend felt welcome and had a fun ride to school.

Perfect.

After the girls were dropped off, my wife and I began talking about the mom. I mentioned that I was happy to drive her daughter to school today, but thought it was a little weird that someone we just met would ask favors from us, especially so last minute.

I told my wife that I understand that the mom is single and she may be in hard times, but I wasn’t comfortable doing favors for someone we don’t really know.

I told my wife if the mom asks again for help given some time, I’m okay with it, but if she asks for help again this week that my wife needs to say no so we can establish a healthy boundary.

Fair.

We don’t know this person and I didn’t want her to feel too comfortable asking favors so soon. My wife said she understood what I was saying but she has a hard time saying no, so she was reluctant to agree.

I told her that if she says yes again this week that she is not respecting the fact that I am trying to establish boundaries and that her decision Affects me too because I am the one that drives the kids to school.

I told my wife I am willing to help this woman out, I just need to get a feel for her and make sure she isn’t using us. My wife said it is no big deal to drive the kid to school and that we just have different perspectives.

Hmmm…

I am not unwilling to help someone that needs a helping hand. I just have a weird gut feeling when someone who is essentially a stranger is asking for favors so soon.

My wife’s response has puzzled me and has put doubt in my own reasoning.

AITAH for telling my wife not to help this single mom again this week?

Reddit leaned NTA, saying his concerns were reasonable given how quickly the single mom started asking for help.

This person is very much on OP’s side.

This person says Wifey needs to learn a thing or two about boundaries.

And this person says it’s smart to beware of the single mom.

There’s a fine line between being neighborly and being a free rideshare—and this husband’s just trying to find it.

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.