My Mom Promised She’d Keep Her Pitbull Crated Around My Son. She’s Betrayed Me.

by Greg Lavallee

My mom lives 2 hours away and has a pet pit bull, Charlie, that I do not want around my 4-year-old (to me, the benefits do not outweigh the risks). My mom vehemently disagrees with my judgment, but she has agreed to respect my wishes. Charlie is crated in the walk-out basement during our visits.

About a year ago, she asked to start having monthly sleepovers so she could spend time with my son, and my husband and I could have alone time. I said yes on the condition that Charlie either stayed at a nice boarding facility that we paid for, or he stayed in her basement with a locked door between him and my son at all times.

I thought everything was going fine, but my son recently talked about playing with Charlie. When I asked my mom about it, she admitted to letting them hang out just the one time. I told her I was very upset and at a minimum, the next sleepover wasn’t happening. When I talked to my sister, she said “oh I thought you’d changed your mind about Charlie. Mom’s been posting pictures of them on Facebook for a few months now.” (I haven’t been on Facebook in years.)

So not only did my mom repeatedly go back on the promise she made and endanger my son, she lied about how many times it happened when I confronted her. Obviously, unsupervised visits with her are over for the foreseeable future. Even if her dog died tomorrow, I no longer trust her judgment.

I’m so upset that I’m considering ceasing all contact with her for a long while. My husband says that he just wants unsupervised visits to stop, and anything beyond that is 100 percent my choice to make. Where do I go from here?

—Furious Mom

https://slate.com/advice/2024/11/parenting-advice-grandma-pit-bull-dangerous.html