Woman refuses to babysit her grandkids, even though it might cause her daughter-in-law to lose her job
Somehow, everyone assumes that it is the grandparents’ responsibility to take care of their grandchildren while their parents are out of the house. And, while most grandparents are more than happy to step up and spend some quality time with the little ones, parents sometimes take advantage of them and give them too many responsibilities around the children.
A grandmother took to Reddit to discuss a rather sensitive issue.
It turned out that after four years of being a stay-at-home mom, her daughter-in-law has finally secured a well-paid job. The problem arouse when she failed to find a suitable babysitter for her two children. In an attempt to solve this issue, she turned to her mother-in-law and asked her if she could temporarily take care of the kids. It was for just a week time
The grandmother said she couldn’t. However, she stated the reasons behind her decision.
Allegedly, her daughter-in-law was overly demanding.
She asked from the woman to prepare vegetarian food for the children without providing for it. Further, the kids weren’t allowed to spend any time in front of the TV and the grandma was asked to keep them active and entertained at all times. The daughter-in-law even demanded that the grandma comes with educational worksheets for her older child who is four years old.
On top of that, she said she didn’t want the grandma’s friends over. The grandma wrote that this would affect her daily interactions with her friends.
When her son called her and asked her to take care of the kids, the woman explained that she didn’t want to because his wife was demanding and unreasonable.
The grandma added that she didn’t mind babysitting her other son’s children.
The responses on her post were mixed.
“I’m so sick of people treating grandparents like free childcare. They’re just kids and it’s okay if the rules slide for a week…that’s why kids love going to their grandparents!! I think you should make it clear that you’d absolutely love to take them if DIL is willing to compromise but if she won’t budge then that’s not on you she can find someone else to be a boot camp instructor,” someone wrote.
Some were more critical of the grandmother, saying: “I thought you were going to say you’ve been asked to look after them full time but you’ve been asked to help for a WEEK. Yes ok the rules are a bit much but you’d rather your DIL not get this job to support the family because it would inconvenience you for 5 whole days. Do the right thing and help your son and DIL out.”
