WIBTAH if I didn’t let my step dad watch my house/cat while I’m away anymore?
I can’t write this without over explaining so here it goes… My husband (35m) and I (33f) recently went on a trip to the other side of the state. While away, my step dad usually comes to our house to feed our 1 cat. My parents live around the corner from us so it takes less than 2 mins to get to our house. Our cat is an inside/outside cat who is slowly learning to love the inside cat lifestyle but she still prefers to be outside most of the day. With that said, when we are gone she likes to stay outside and comes running to door for breakfast/dinner. She only needs to eat twice a day (once in the morning then again in the evening) I usually chat with my step dad while he is at our house feeding the cat. In the evenings, time would escape me and I’d forget to check in with him for dinner time. But I’d assume he fed her. The problem started the day before we are to return home. Step dad was at my house that morning feeding our cat when he mentioned that he wasn’t able to make it there the night before to feed her because of storms. I was upset from the lack of communication on his part and the fact that our cat didn’t get to eat last night. (Meaning the last time she ate was around 7am the day before) we could have made other arrangements if he would have told us. He then made a comment about how much she was eating and I said “well yea, she didn’t get to eat last night” flash forward to that evening, I texted my step dad to see if he has made it to the house to feed her dinner-no answer. I called-no answer. So I waited 20 mins. Called again and he picked up. I asked if he was able to go feed our cat tonight and he said no, it was storming when he got home. Then he asked “do you want me to go over there to feed her?” Ummm yea! Like wtf you seen how much she ate this morning because you didn’t feed her the night before. He then said “well I see her fat pouch, she’s fat and doesn’t need to eat” I really wanted to say back “well you’re fat too so I guess that means you don’t need to eat either” but I didn’t. After that call he did go to our house and feed our cat but we had him leave his set of keys and ended up asking someone else to take over the next morning before we got home. We have never had any issues with him feeding our cat, I asked him multiple times if he wants to do this and he said yes every time. I told him as well that I have other people I can call and ask to do this but he still insisted it’s fine. My husband and I can’t have kids, our animals are our kids. We haven’t told my step dad about how upset we are with him over this but we will never ask him to feed our cat ever again. WIBTAH if I don’t ask him ever again to feed our cat?
Wanted to add, there are outside strays so we don’t leave food outside. No doggy door for the cat to come in/out as she pleases. So we need someone to physically come let her in and put food in her bowl.
Posted Jul 5, 2025, 11:45 AM UTC