His Mother-In-Law Agreed To Watch His Son While He And His Wife Went On Vacation, But Then She Demanded $500 As Payment At The Last Minute
Typically, when grandparents babysit their grandchildren, they don’t charge any fees. However, some grandparents out there want to get paid for watching their grandchildren no matter what.
One man felt extremely disappointed in his mother-in-law, who agreed to watch his son while he and his wife took a trip, then asked them to pay her $500 at the last minute.
He and his wife are in their late 30s. His wife is about to celebrate her 40th birthday, so he wanted to do something extra special and booked them a five-day vacation.
It’ll be just the two of them, which is great since they haven’t had the opportunity to go anywhere alone since their son was born four years ago.
They booked the trip months ago and asked his mother-in-law if she’d watch their son at their house while they were gone. She immediately agreed.
His mother-in-law is in her 60s and doesn’t have an official job. Here and there, she’ll do some work for her son’s real estate business, but other than that, she doesn’t have a big work schedule she has to commit to. Therefore, they figured there’d be no conflict with his mother-in-law.
But then, his wife got a surprising phone call.
“Last weekend, my wife called my mother-in-law to talk to her about our trip and to ask if there’s anything [she] will need [or] want us to stock in the house as far as food or necessities,” he explained.
“During the conversation, [my mother-in-law] said that she will need $100 per day from us. This is the first time she ever brought up wanting to get paid to watch our son. My wife was caught off guard, and just kind of agreed to it.”
Olga – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
He became upset when his wife told him about her mom’s request. He believes his mother-in-law is trying to take advantage of them and thinks it was wrong of her to spring it on them at the last minute. Instead of paying his mother-in-law, he decided to call his parents to see if they’d be free to watch their son since they had both retired.
“My wife told me that [my mother-in-law] wouldn’t ask that sort of thing unless she needs the money and that adding $500 to our vacation trip isn’t that much of a big deal,” he recalled.
“I told her that it’s not about the money to me. It’s about [my mother-in-law] being sneaky and manipulative. I called my mom and asked her if they would be able to watch our son instead, and she jumped at the idea.”
He informed his wife that his parents would be able to watch their son and that she could tell her mom she didn’t have to do it anymore. His wife hated the idea, especially because she knew how much her mom was looking forward to seeing her grandson.
“I told her that if she was looking forward to it that much, she wouldn’t be trying to swindle us out of $500,” he said.
“I told her if she didn’t want to make the call, I would gladly do it. She reluctantly made the call herself, but it didn’t go well.”
His mother-in-law became very upset and accused them of depriving her of her grandson. His wife also became emotional and asked if there was any way they could change the arrangement for her mom, but he put his foot down and said no.
Should he find a way to compromise with his mother-in-law after what she did, or just leave his son with his parents?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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