When your little one has a pal that they can hang out with after school, it's a great feeling. It means that the heat is taken off you a little bit, because as much as you love them there are only so many episodes of Peppa Pig you can handle.
But one mum found herself in a pickle when she realised her child's friend's mum was sending her six-year-old daughter around to her house whenever they came home, essentially using her as free childcare.
Unsure what to do as she didn't want to cause a scene or make things awkward by accusing her of taking advance, the mum took to Reddit in seek of advice.
She titled the pleading post: "How to say no to neighbour who keeps sending their daughter over to play, without souring the relationship?". She wrote: "My neighbour keeps sending her six-year-old daughter to our house to play with my 14-month-old son. Sometimes for an hour. And the parents don't come too, sometimes they don't even know she came over.
"The girl watches our house from her bedroom window and comes over five minutes after she sees us come home. I reject her at the door half the time and say the baby is sleeping. It's exhausting for me."
She explained that her daughter "loves her son", but it "takes up her time", with her stating that she actually has to "watch like a hawk because she's much older and not careful."
The mum described it as "basically free babysitting", so she wanted to "draw some boundaries without ruining the relationship with neighbours" and she asked for some advice.
One Redditor said: "Free babysitter. Why would the mother be upset? Put the daughter to work next time. Show her how to change the baby's diaper. That will freak her out."
Another wrote: "Ah, it's tricky. The passive route would be to wait for her to get bored of visiting your toddler. You can hasten this by upping the number of times she can't come in, and when she does try to make it less fun - no TV or toys or whatever it is she likes to do. Tell her she can come in, but will have to help clean up (and then make her do it).
"In an ideal world, her mother would have realised the problem when you brought her back and told her to stop it. The next best would be if you could tell her, but people get easily offended about their kids.
"You could ask the mother if she minds babysitting while you go to the shops or something (if you trust her with your child). Mention how her daughter enjoys playing with your toddler, and she's been around yours so often, would she mind just this once while you go to the shops, etc? She's likely to tell her daughter to stop going if she thinks she'll have to start babysitting in return!"
Someone else commented: "They 100% know and they are taking the p***."
How would you approach this situation? Let us know in the comments.
