I went out to dinner with my family and we started talking about old childhood memories. My brother asked if I remembered throwing a huge tantrum at the airport when I was seven. I said I did. I remembered being really pissed off. My family started talking about how funny it was to watch me and how upset I’d been. Tbh, I feel like I was totally justified.
So for starters, I’m just gonna say I did not live a very privileged life and I remember being really poor for most of my childhood.
One day my babysitter comes home and says "Guess what kids? Your Mom called, we’re getting on a plane and we’re gonna go see the Lakers in a basketball game!" I got so excited! She started packing us a bag and started saying we were gonna go. I’d NEVER been on a plane before, and I was super duper excited! Id never been anywhere!
We get to the airport, and they tell us we’re probably going to be waiting a long time because that’s how planes are.
We wait for what seems like hours and hours, and then, she takes us to the escalators and starts talking to the worker there. I figured she must be getting our tickets
Then my Mom came down the escalator, all my siblings were super excited to see her but I was wondering if she was here because it was time for us to leave to see the Basketball game.
But it turns out, nope, the whole basketball game thing was a lie to get us out of the house. We were here to pick up my Mom from the airport and then go home.
I remember being really ticked off. I remember screaming and yelling and being so mad. My babysitter got super mad at me for screaming and said I should be grateful because she’d bought me chips and snacks but I wasnt! I was so mad! I wanted to go on a cool trip and see a Basketball Game with the Lakers!
We drove home, and my mom handed us peanuts she’d gotten from the airplane. I guess she had gone to visit relatives or something, and those were our souvenirs. I don’t remember much after that. I don’t even think we stopped for lunch on the way home, and I was mad for the rest of the day.
I feel like I was the asshole because I should have been happy to see my Mom again after so long. But at the same time, I feel like it was unfair that they told me I was going on a super cool trip, I waited at the airport for hours, and then they basically told me, PSYCH, you’re just going to see your Mom.
Having dinner with my family kind of made me question this, AITA?
What an awful lie to tell children. Your mom and babysitter were a-holes.
NTA. That was a terrible thing to do to a kid.
NTA. What a weird way for the babysitter to “get you out of the house.” She couldn’t have just said you were going to pick up your mom at the airport then talked about seeing planes etc? She deserved the tantrum for her lack of imagination.
NTA. Nothing good ever comes from lying to a child, the babysitter should’ve known that.
NTA you’d never been to an airport you’d likely be excited to.just do that at 7 who does that to a kid
NTA. Some adults do really unkind, unfair things to children, and then act like the child is in the wrong for being upset. She should have been hyping up how great it is that Mom’s coming home, aren’t you excited to see her? Instead she set you up for what sounds like one of the worst disappointments of your young life. How cruel.
They packed stuff! And today they still make fun of op! “You should have seen your face when you realized you weren’t going to see the basketball game! Haha!” It’s literally a making a villain story!
This is on level with the aunt that told the child there was cake downstairs to “distract them” and then got shocked the kid got upset.
NTA
NTA – not a nice thing to do to a child. But if it’s any consolation, the lakers lost that day.
NTA. I want to throw a tantrum after reading this that anyone could do this to a child.
NTA
Your babysitter was 100% AH though.
It makes me angry. On what planet do they think that’s an acceptable thing to do to a child.
NTA
Children should not be straight up lied to like that. They aren’t good at processing emotions yet and yanking things from them isn’t wise. Honestly I make it a point to NEVER be like this to children because you never know what they remember and the one time you do something out of pocket like this can cause deep issues later on.
You were a child. How could anyone but the adults in the situation be TA?
NTA. You were 7 and you were lied to, idk what she was expecting.