WIBTA if I tell mom I’d rather her not babysit anymore because of what happened last time….

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The original was posted on /r/amitheasshole by /u/stribalibalib on 2023-07-27 15:54:23+00:00.

Last night l, my husband and I had concert tickets to see two bands we’ve been wanting to see. The tickets were part of his bday present from May and the show was last night. Originally, we were going to let our boys (15 and 6) stay home with the 15 year old in charge. He watches his brother occasionally for typically small amounts of time, usually an hour or two. We always ask him and compensate him before anybody starts claiming parentification.

Lately, 6 and 15 haven’t been getting a long super great. Pretty normal sibling bickering after extended periods of time. 6 wants to play, 15 wants his space. Nothing major, but we knew the concert would go late and it would be the longest 15 was in charge, so we decided to ask my mom to babysit. She lives about 15 minutes away and had no problem saying the boys could come stay with her.

My mom has to be at work at 7am, so I said I’d be there at 6:30 or could meet her at work, which is pretty much right in between our houses. She said to enjoy ourselves (we don’t go out much without the kids) and to just pick them up when we woke up; they’d be fine for a bit by themselves. I agreed because they would be fine for a bit and our dog eats at 7 and will promptly let you know that you’re late at 7:01.

I got up at 7, fed the dog, walked him, and caught the second half of the Nigeria-Australia would cup game while sipping a cup of coffee (this is where I probably messed up as I could have gotten to her house earlier, but chose to ease into the day after a late night).

I arrived at my mom’s at 9:15 to find 6 awake and 15 still asleep. 6 said grandma had put the code to the iPad in and he’d just been hanging out since she left for work and he was hungry. I woke up 15, took them home, fed them, and asked 15 if grandma had tried to wake him up. He said he didn’t think so. 6 also said she hadn’t. I was flummoxed because 6 had basically been on his own for the last 3 hours. He uses the iPad for playing games and doesn’t know how to use it for communication.

I texted my mom and asked if she’d tried to wake 15 up thinking there was no way she just left for work knowing 6 was up and 15 wasn’t. She said hadn’t and asked if anything was wrong. Luckily, there wasn’t any type of emergency, but I feel like she should have roused 15 before leaving since our agreement was that they would be fine for an hour or two before I got there, not that 6 would be left to his own devices. I haven’t said anything yet because I’m not sure how to phrase it and would rather let myself cool off before I do so I don’t say anything mean, but I’m not sure I want her babysitting anymore. WIBTA if I don’t let her watch my kids again?