AITA for refusing to let my MIL babysit over a dummy?
As the title mentions, this is over something people might consider to be trivial. Here goes.
I have a toddler. Said toddler was inseparable from their dummy (pacifier) to the point we had to make them go cold-turkey.
I had many sleepless nights because the dummy was a vital part of their night-time routine, but any access to one would cause a world of chaos for us.
Long story short, it took us 1 month to fully wean and 3 months to get to the point where any stray dummies were voluntarily surrendered.
We have a baby now. Our toddler was great at handing the dummies to the baby without daring to put it in their own mouth. That was until my MIL babysat and we returned to find our toddler asleep with a dummy in their mouth.
My husband was furious and tried to explain what can of worms she had opened up for us. My MIL tried to explain that our toddler started to cry inconsolably (for reasons unclear) and because she doesn’t like crying, she gave them the dummy to get them to stop.
It has been a month since this incident. I am constantly having to hide dummies from my toddler because they will try to put them in their own mouth, steal them from the baby whilst they sleep, and scream relentlessly if they cannot have one.
My partner has been lamenting over my MIL’s actions and curses her under his breath every time we have to deal with a dummy related tantrum.
My MIL now wants to be able to babysit for us next week. My partner and I have said “No. Not after the dummy incident”. She is not taking this well and has told my FIL, GMIL and friends that we are punishing her for trying to get my toddler to stop crying.
We’re still not budging.
I don’t believe my partner and I are in the wrong for this. Perhaps others see it differently. AITA in this situation?
