It is great when one of the neighborhood kids can babysit your little one, but you have to be careful to ensure they treat your child well.

What would you do if one of the neighbors said something inappropriate to your young son, but when you confronted their parents, they completely blew it off?

That is what happened to the parents in this story, and they aren’t sure if they did the right thing by confronting the neighbors.

AITA for confronting my neighbors over what their son said?

My husband (37M) and I (37F) have two kids, our daughter Nicole (13F) and our son Liam (6M).

Every parent needs a babysitter from time to time.

My husband and I sometimes need a babysitter for Liam when we have business dinners or weddings, or some other event we can’t bring the kids to.

Nicole is far too immature to watch Liam, she’s a nice girl but refuses to learn life skills and has issues with pulling “pranks” at school. She’s normally out with friends.

Our neighbors have two sons: Fenwick (14) and Ryne (13M).

That is nice that Ryne can help out.

Ryne has been babysitting Liam for a few months now and is the most successful babysitter we’ve had.

Liam has severe ADHD and is currently on medication, he also can be quite oppositional and has an issue listening to us and his teachers. Liam has flat out told us he respects Ryne more than us.

He sounds like a lot of work.

Liam loves dance, gymnastics and cheer and these outlets can help him with his behavior. He also has unmatched amounts of energy though and is constantly trying to do flips, cartwheels or dancing in the house.

Ryne is a good babysitter because he has a lot of energy as well, he plays baseball and is super athletic and will help Liam exercise. He can play with Liam in our yard all day long.

I think Nicole is upset that she doesn’t get to babysit.

Ryne is also a very sweet boy, he’s offered to tutor Nicole but Nicole has refused because “he doesn’t need any more of our money”, she’s been upset that he babysits and gets paid but she refuses to mature.

Yesterday, we had to have Ryne babysit Liam again. We were out for a few hours yesterday at a lunch. Nicole was out with her friends and one of their parents.

They really seem to get along.

When we came back, Liam and Ryne were playing outside. Ryne told Liam he’d make hot cocoa soon and Liam was asking if Ryne could stay for hot cocoa, which we agreed to.

As they were drinking the hot cocoa, Liam mentioned how he promised to always be himself to Ryne. We asked Ryne about this and he said he just didn’t want him to change if anyone bullied him.

Liam is too young to be hearing any of this type of thing.

We asked Ryne if everything was ok and he asked to speak to us alone. He said that Fenwick said some homophobic things about our son, including using the f slur.

Fenwick is a quiet, nerdy kid. I know he goes to science competitions and likes anime, but that’s the extent of what I know about him as he’s pretty reserved.

It is a hard balance between being overbearing and too relaxed as a parent.

I asked Ryne how he felt about this and he said he was upset. He said his parents never ground them and don’t monitor what they say because they don’t want to be “helicopter” parents, they do their chores and stuff and just want “their kids to enjoy childhood punishment free”.

He told me he’s argued in the past with Fenwick about using slurs and his parents call it “healthy debate”.

These parents aren’t going to do anything.

I told Ryne I’d talk to his parents. They greeted me and when I mentioned what happened, they said that what Fenwick said in private was none of my business.

They said that they wouldn’t limit their child’s free speech because that teaches them to not speak up. They said I need to stop being nosy and left it at that.

AITA?

Fenwick sounds like he has some issues that need to be worked out, but his parents aren’t going to do anything about it, unfortunately.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Lots of parents are too hands off today.

Good question from this commenter.

Here is someone who says they should stop their son from being a bully.

This is a good question.

This commenter says it is definitely their business.

These parents should step in and discipline their child.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.