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Trying to get a small child to go to sleep when they are crying is one of the most difficult and frustrating things about parenting.

What would you do if you were on vacation with your mother when your daughter was having a really hard time falling asleep, and your mom kept coming in to offer to help?

That is what was happening in this story, so she finally shouted at her mom to leave them be, but now she feels bad since her mom was only trying to help.

While it would have been better if she didn’t get upset, it is also completely understandable. Read through the full story below and see what you think.

AITA for telling my mom to not interfere with my daughter’s nightly crying

Yesterday was the first day of my vacation with my family (mum, 2 brothers + sister in law) and my partner + daughter (2.5).

Vacations can be tough on kids.

My daughter had an intense day yesterday. Everyone arrived about 1.5 hour before her bedtime, so she was super hyped, and on top of that she fell from the stairs with my mum (only the last step, my daughter didn’t hurt herself at all, but mum was in pain, thankfully she is going to be fine!).

Normally, she is a very good sleeper, but last night it took a bit longer to get her to sleep, but not extreme. But then she woke up around midnight.

Everyone wants to help.

She was crying a lot, had quite a tantrum, and we tried many things to calm her down. Of course the rest of the house heard this as well.

As soon as my daughter started crying, my partner went to her. Soon after, my mum came in as well. I already told her (and my partner as well) that it won’t help if she would be there as well.

Mom is having a hard time letting her daughter be the parent.

My mum absolutely adores children, and of course especially her grand daughter, so I understand her reaction to the crying, but after the third time of her coming out of her room when my daughter was crying I told her to “back off, and let us deal with it ourselves”.

She still said to me, also kind of annoyed with me, “why don’t you just try to hold her and stop talking to her“, which I had already done.

Feeling like you are seen as a bad parent is never fun.

The rest of the time my daughter was up I was super aware of my mum‘s reaction and was trying even harder to get my daughter to calm down.

I felt so many things, shame (towards my partner about my mum), anger, sadness. I‘m also 7 months pregnant so a night like this is extra hard at the moment.

It is understandable that she was frustrated.

I know my mum doesn’t mean any harm, but I really felt like telling her to back off because I want to find my own way in handling these situations with my child.

Am I wrong for telling her this in quite a harsh way, when she was probably just trying to help?

AITA?

I’m sure Mom/Grandma understands that she didn’t mean anything by it. She has undoubtedly had plenty of long nights with crying children herself. Everyone in this story seems to only want what is best.

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

She can parent her kids how she wants.

Maybe she overreacted, but that is understandable.

This commenter doesn’t think she did anything wrong.

Talking to Mom during that day is a good idea.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who thinks her daughter should have planned a whole two-week vacation around her needs.

It really can be this simple.

It was a stressful situation, and nobody really did anything wrong. She may want to apologize, but it is almost certain that her mother will understand.

Soothing a crying child at night can be a challenge even in the best of situations.