Childcare requests can get awkward fast when nobody bothers to figure out whether it is a job or a freebie.

So when a well-meaning father passed along a babysitting request to his teen daughter without checking if payment was involved, his wife argued that he had put their daughter in an uncomfortable situation.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for not asking if babysitting would be paid?

I’m (M45) a shift worker, and a single-parent colleague, and friend of mine, texted me asking if my daughter (17) would be interested in looking after her kids one day during the school holidays, as she couldn’t get out of her shift.

He thought it all seemed legit enough to him, so he moved forward with asking his daughter.

There was no mention of payment, but I’m sure she would pay for my daughter’s time, so I told her that I’d let her know.

Instead of being a go-between between her and my daughter, I called my daughter and told her that my friend, who my daughter knows as well, was looking for someone, what day it was, and if she was interested, to contact her.

But his wife wasn’t too happy about the proposition.

The next morning, my wife (50) had a go at me for putting our daughter in an uncomfortable position about asking whether it was paid work or just helping out a friend, and that I should have clarified this before approaching our daughter with the offer.

AITA for letting my daughter sort this out, or should I have got more information before asking her if she was interested?

It sounds like this dad meant well here.

What did Reddit think?

Navigating something like this would actually be good experience for the teen.

This user agrees 17 is old enough to negotiate.

Clarification would have been the best approach.

Ambiguity can lead to uncomfortable situations, but uncomfortable situations are part of life.

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.