Children are truly God’s gift. At times when both parents work a trustworthy person is needed to look after the child. Who else better could it be than your mother. But things take a different turn when the grandmother asks for money in favor of taking care of the baby. (This story was sent to us by Esther).
Source: Reddit
I have a 9 month old son and for the past year my mother has been living with me and my husband. She has helped us out a lot by looking after my son when both me and my husband are in a pinch. This has been great and much appreciated and at first I thought she was happy to help out because she expressed how much she wanted a grandchild before my son was born.
So we let her stay with us so she can spend more time with her grandchild. However she has recently said she now wants to be paid for looking after my son and is upset that we haven’t paid her at all. She did not indicate that she expected payment in the first place. Does this seem reasonable at all?
Given that she is staying with us she has no expenses, she is divorced with no partner and is retired so it’s not like she has been missing out on any employment income anyway. We have also taken her to a few holidays with us as well.
If anything I’m more hurt that she feels this way, as from my point of view, paying her feels like a transaction and not the fact that it’s her grandchild. I’m more than happy to pay for expenses that she might incur for looking after my son but in our case there isn’t any because she lives with us. But if she wants payment then I might as well take my son to a nursery when I’m back at work.
How would you deal with such a situation?
