A mom took to Reddit’s AITA forum to ask if she was wrong for wanting to ban her niece and nephew from entering her infant daughter’s bedroom.
She explained that her husband’s brother frequently visits their home with his 2½-year-old daughter and 5½-year-old son. To make the visits enjoyable, she ensures there are plenty of options for the kids to play — from the backyard and living room to a basement area.
But instead of using those spaces, the children head straight to her 7-month-old daughter’s bedroom and leave it in disarray.
“They’ll pull everything off her shelves and make a total mess,” she wrote. “What bothers me even more is that their dad goes in there with them, sits down and just lets it happen. They don’t clean up afterwards either, so I’m left to do it.”
The poster emphasized that bedrooms should be private spaces and said it frustrates her that her efforts to keep other play areas tidy are ignored, while her baby’s room ends up trashed. She admitted she doesn’t want to seem rude but also doesn’t want her daughter’s space to always be left in chaos.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/baby-room-2-092925-22dadbc11c3c4490a7c7210e36e67005.jpg)
Commenters overwhelmingly sided with her, encouraging her to set boundaries.
One user wrote:
“Tell them flat out they are not allowed in that room. Lock the door. Tell them that if they are not going to clean up after their kids, they need to stop coming over. You are not their maid.”
Another pointed out that her husband should be the one enforcing the rule:
“NTA, but why isn’t your husband saying anything? It sounds like you have a lot of areas for them to play and be comfortable. Moving forward, tell them you’d like to keep that space off-limits. If they push, explain it’s where the baby sleeps and you want to keep it clean and germ-free.”
Others agreed the best solution was for her husband to step in directly with his brother:
“Get your husband to tell his brother that the kids cannot be in your baby’s room. If he asks why, he should explain that he allows his kids to make a mess and doesn’t help clean it up. Unless that changes, the room stays off-limits.”
