When you have a young child, finding a good babysitter who you trust can be a real challenge (and very expensive).

What would you do if you had your mother helping with babysitting, but then you found out that she was lying about taking her to a class that your daughter loved?

That is what happened to the parent in this story, so she fired her mom as the babysitter and hired a childcare service to take over. Now grandma is upset that she doesn’t get to see her granddaughter nearly as much, and mom is wondering if she was overreacting.

Personally, I think the issue isn’t so much that grandma wouldn’t take the granddaughter to the fun events, but that she lied about it. You need to be able to trust the person caring for your little ones. Read through the details below and see what you think.

AITA for “firing” my mom from childcare over a $5 class

My husband and I have a 16 month old daughter, Ellie. I just went back to work part time and I had my mom watching Ellie 2 days a week.

This sounds like a great class for a little one.

Ellie goes to this little toddler class through our rec center twice a week. It’s a 2 hour class and every class has free play, a circle time with a story and song, and an art project.

During free play the kids have 4 different table stations that they could visit including an art table, a corner of the room with all cars, trucks, and trains, the house corner with a kitchen and baby dolls, the dramatic play area (changes biweekly, I’ve seen a grocery store, vets office, and pizza shop), the book area, the block area, and the patio.

There is a lot to do, and such a great price.

The patio has 2 water tables, 2 playhouses, a sandbox, tricycles, and little tykes cars. Each class is only $5. Parents/caregivers are required to stay and supervise their children.

Ellie loves this class. She’s addicted to the chalkboards there and is starting to approach other babies.

This is how kids learn about the area around them.

She does taste test every foam block in the room and has eaten her fair share of crayons and finger paint, on top of drenching herself in water then rolling around in the sandbox and covering her in paint but it’s nothing that can’t be solved without a change of clothes and hosing her off.

I love how great the class is for her development. She is starting to know the names of colors and she can sit down and play with toys for longer stretches.

Some people don’t like the ‘chaos’ that kids often bring.

My mom hated the toddler classes. She describes it as chaos and insists that a walk around the block or a trip to the library is just as good, if not better for her development and is much less messy.

I still insisted that she take Ellie, which she agreed to, then stopped taking her behind my back. I only noticed when I realized we haven’t gotten art projects back in a while.

She shouldn’t have lied about what she was doing with Ellie.

Since she lied to me about where she’s been going with my daughter and refused to take her to a class that I truly believe is good for her, I “fired” my mom from babysitting and hired a college student to stay with her while I’m working.

Now my mom is upset that I’m restricting her access to her granddaughter and leaving her with a stranger, which is the one thing she was trying to prevent by babysitting my daughter for me.

Her mother should have talked to her about what she was doing. Lying about what is going on with a child is never ok.

Now I want to know if I was in the wrong for firing my mom and not having Ellie see her nearly as much over a $5 class.

AITA?

No. The fact that her mother lied about what she was doing with Ellie is a big red flag. While I wouldn’t ban her from ever watching her granddaughter again, this is a concern that mom had to deal with.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a sister who canceled a family dinner after realizing she’d been the only one putting in effort for years.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

This nanny has some interesting points.

I agree with this commenter. The lying is the big problem.

This commenter says that the lying is the real issue.

Mom lied and that is the big problem.

I agree, this has nothing to do with the class, at the end of the day.

If you can’t trust your babysitter, even if it is family, then they can’t watch your kids anymore. This is the biggest issue here and the one that the mom really needs to address. But will she?

Of course, you can always give family members a little bit more leeway than a stranger. I don’t think that grandma should be banned from watching her granddaughter forever, but she does need to be made to see how serious this was.