A grandmother has taken to Reddit to ask for advice on a pretty sticky situation. Here’s what she shared:
AITA for refusing to babysit my grandchildren and potentially costing DIL a job?
“My son has two children, 4 and 2, and his wife took some time off to be a stay at home mom. She has been trying to return to the workforce for a while now and she finally got an offer in her field. The earliest she can get the kids into daycare is a week after when they want her to start and they asked me to watch the children for a week. With their commutes it would be about nine hours a day of childcare.
I probably would have done it for my other son but watching these children comes with so many rules. They are vegetarian and on a strict diet and last time I watched them food was not provided. DIL is very strict about language. The tv isn’t allowed to be on (I don’t even watch tv but I had to put that in there because I found it so rude) she wants the four year old to do some enrichment worksheets that I would be expected to do. There is a very strict schedule. I do understand naps but I think the rest of it is too much when I would be doing them a favor.
The biggest issue is I wouldn’t be able to have anyone at the house while they were there.
I see my friends almost everyday and if I’m providing nine hours of childcare I’m not going to be one on one with the kids the entire time. She thinks my friends are bad people and she is very strict about the influences on her kids.
I told my son that that’s way too much to ask of anyone and they need to find a professional. He begged me to reconsider but I really don’t want to and DIL called crying the other night about how important this job is to her.
Edit: we live in a very low risk area and she is not worried about covid, she just thinks my friends are terrible people.”
The responses from Redditors were pretty 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.
Though, 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.”
In the end, the responses on the tricky situation seemed pretty 50/50. But what do you think? Let us know in the comments!
