so i (21f) live with two roommates. one of them, sarah (22f), is generally pretty chill but lately she's been doing this... thing. she bought this hyper-realistic doll — like, super realistic, weighted, glassy eyes, the works — and started treating it like an actual baby. at first i thought it was a joke, but no. she named it, gave it a crib in our shared living room, puts it in a stroller to “go for walks,” and even pretends to feed it.

i tried being respectful because i figured maybe it was therapeutic or something. she said it helped her “cope” with childhood stuff, and i didn’t want to judge. but it started getting weird. she’d leave “the baby” on the couch and tell me not to watch horror movies too loud because “he’s sleeping.” once she actually woke me up at 2am because “the baby was crying” and she wanted to know if i’d heard anything. it’s a doll.

then last week, she yelled at my other roommate for sitting in the rocker because it was “the baby’s spot.” that was kinda my last straw. i was cleaning the apartment while she was at work and decided i was done. i didn’t throw it in the trash — i just packed it up, left it in her room, and locked the door (she usually keeps it open because she says “the baby gets lonely”).

when she got home, she LOST it. full-on meltdown. screamed at me, said i “murdered her child,” and now won’t talk to me. she even called her mom to tell her what i did and now her mom is texting me calling me “heartless.”

our third roommate is on my side but says i could’ve handled it more gently. maybe i could have. but like... i didn’t sign up to share a home with a doll family.

aitah for putting the doll away and locking the door?