AITA Dogs Left out at Kids Birthday Party and Requested they be locked away.
I (34M) have a son in 1st grade and got invited to a pool party. The kids invited to go to school together and/or play youth sports on the same teams. When we got there, what I was told was a Malinois, came up to us and sniffed and pawed at us. I told it to get away, and it did. My son does not like dogs since an incident at the park. I told it to get away a few more times in the next few minutes as we said hi to people. I noticed another dog outside. We were not told about the dogs ahead of time and my son didn’t want to play with his friends as he was hesitant to be away from me.
I’m friendly with the host parents, but we don’t know each other outside of our kids’ activities. I approached mom, thanked her for the invitation and complemented their house. I asked her to lock the dogs away and explained the situation with my son. She looked clearly annoyed at the request. She told me she doesn’t react well to being locked away and asserted that they were friendly and safe. I reiterated my son was not okay with dogs and didn’t want to be around them. She said with the house full like this the dogs want to be a part of the party and they wouldn’t be going anywhere. She was clearly not okay with my request and implied we wouldn’t be invited in the future.
She left to attend to something else and we decided to leave the party. My son seemed okay with that decision as he perked up when we were in the car. I got a text later from the host saying my request was inappropriate. AITA?