Grandma takes grandkids to Disneyland without informing parents, asks if she was wrong

Parents often rely on grandparents to watch the kids during holidays, creating opportunities for sweet memories—and sometimes a little family drama. One grandma found herself at the center of such drama after taking her grandchildren to Disney for the first time without their mother’s permission. She turned to the subreddit r/AITA to ask if she was in the wrong.

Adding fuel to the fire, the grandma later refused to apologize when the children’s mother confronted her. In her post, she explained that her son had created the Reddit account for her specifically to share her side of the story and seek opinions from strangers online.

The grandma detailed how she had agreed to babysit her toddler grandkids for four nights and five days while her son and daughter-in-law attended a wedding in Mexico, enjoying some much-needed vacation time. What was supposed to be a helpful gesture quickly turned into a controversial topic after she decided to take the kids on a magical—but unauthorized—Disney adventure.

"They approached me since her mother would not be available and I initially said I wasn't comfortable with that. It seemed like a long time to watch the kids and she had once told me that the woman's family is more important than the man's, so I was irritated that I was being asked to do this. I will admit that I did give in when my son became very emotional, but I feel like they were being manipulative," the post read. While she was babysitting the grandkids, she was invited to a birthday party at Epcot and wanted to go there. The idea of informing her son or daughter-in-law did not cross her mind.

"My daughter-in-law had previously mentioned wanting to save up for Disney, but she's said that about a lot of things and never made me aware it was something super special to her. Also, it was Epcot. It's not like I took them to Magic Kingdom and they had some magical moment of seeing their favorite character," the post continued. "When they returned and found out, my daughter-in-law was furious and burst into tears. She said I stole one of her kids first and called me entitled. To be honest, I didn't react well to being called entitled." When her son took his wife's side and asked her to apologize to her daughter-in-law because she had missed her first Disney trip with her kids, the grandma refused to oblige.

"My son reached out again and said I should have asked for something that big and his wife feels robbed. I know she is a huge Disney person, but it was Epcot, not quintessential Disney and I don't feel I should have had to miss out on a birthday party I wanted to attend. I told my son I was not apologizing for anything and that maybe they should think about how they made me feel when they didn't respect my initial refusal. My son feels like Reddit is going to show me the error of my ways," the post concluded.

The Reddit community took the grandma's side and left comments that might have humbled her son. u/jasperjamboree wrote, "Since your son was so insistent on you posting this to Reddit and assuming you would be shredded and boy, is he wrong to assume. I do hope he takes the time to read every one of these comments." u/kathryn_sedai commented, "You were doing them a favor by babysitting for multiple days. You were invited somewhere for a birthday party. You attended. Because you had the kids, you took them along. It’s not like you schemed to undermine the plan to take them to Disney." u/goldmossmoon added, "This whole situation gives me the feeling that the existing family dynamic is very immature. And I'm sure your DIL would have a very different perspective on your behavior. It feels like no one respects each other here."

This article originally appeared 8 months ago.