A new mother says she’s torn between protecting her baby and avoiding a blowup with her family after learning her brother may bring his large dog on their upcoming trip.
The 35-year-old shared her situation on Reddit’s “Am I the A——?” forum, explaining that her parents are planning a family getaway at their summer house on the East Coast.
She added that her 28-year-old brother — who she describes as someone who can be blunt and confrontational — has suggested he wants to bring his dog, a “large pit bull type breed.”
That’s where her worry starts. As a parent to a baby, she says she doesn’t feel comfortable being around a dog she doesn’t know, especially one she considers physically powerful.
“I’ve got nothing against the dog or dogs generally, but to me there is always a risk factor, and large bully breeds simply aren’t safe to have around children — lots of these dogs are fine sure, but some of them aren’t, and it seems to me that people don’t really know until it’s too late,” she wrote. “I get there is like a 1% chance something bad happens with my kid, but that’s way too high.”
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She said she expects pushback from her brother, who she believes will insist the dog is harmless and dismiss her concerns as unreasonable. Before bringing it up and potentially triggering what she called “a huge argument,” she asked the community for perspective.
In the comments, many users told her she wasn’t wrong to set boundaries and encouraged her to speak up early.
“NTA [not the a——],” one commenter wrote. “I have had this same argument. And at the end of the day, you decide what you want to do with your baby to keep them safe.”
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“NTA. You’re thinking as a mother,” another person added.
One commenter who said they support bully breeds still agreed the situation could be risky, noting that introducing a large dog into a busy, unfamiliar environment around new people can increase stress and unpredictability.
They also advised the woman to plan her words carefully, stay calm, avoid sounding accusatory, and be firm about her bottom line: she won’t put her child in a situation she doesn’t feel safe about, even if it upsets others.
