I Finally Took a Long-Awaited Day off When My DIL Asked Me to Babysit My Grandkids

Having your children’s grandparents live close to you is a blessing, but what happens when they are not available to babysit? This grandmother had to choose between spending her time alone or babysitting her grandchildren, so she turned to Reddit for advice.

A grandmother wanted to enjoy her time off from work, but when she refused to help her son and daughter-in-law with babysitting, she ended up asking herself if she was wrong for choosing to spend her time alone over her grandkids.

The grandmother took it to Reddit to explain how she ended up in conflict with her son and his wife. She said she was in her late 50s and since the beginning of a month is a busy time at work, and considering the holidays during the previous month, she decided to take time off to recharge.

This time, the woman was lucky to get half the day off, including the weekend. She planned to use her free time to rest and do absolutely nothing. However, her daughter-in-law called to ask her to babysit, but she refused.

The daughter-in-law and her husband were visiting her uncle and did not want to take the kids to daycare. The son’s wife was shocked at the grandmother’s refusal and asked why she could not help.

The Redditor was honest and told her daughter-in-law she wanted to recharge. As if it was not a good enough reason, the mother asked if she was really not doing anything, and when the grandmother confirmed, she called her selfish.

The daughter-in-law felt that it was unfair that the original poster (OP) could not help her, especially since she was not doing anything. Still, the OP stood her ground and refused, which broke into a fight between the two women.

The OP’s son got involved, but he was also angry at his mother. Now that both her son and his wife were mad at her, she wondered if she was wrong for not babysitting her grandchildren.

However, people in the comment section were on her side. One comment told her, “NTA enjoy doing nothing.” The OP responded that she was having a great time. She prepared for the following week but did not participate in any chores or leave the house.

Another Redditor said this should be a lesson not to tell anyone when she’s not doing anything. People believed the grandmother had earned her time alone because she had already done the hard work of raising her children.

Although her decision seemed selfish, she put her needs first, and commenters believed she was validated. But should this have been a family emergency, Redditors did not doubt that grandmother would have jumped to help the couple with the kids.

Additionally, more commenters pointed out that it was unfair for the couple to demand the OP to babysit when she was not feeling well. She specifically wanted to use her time off to rejuvenate and recover from her long days of working, so for her to feel bad for taking care of her physical and emotional well-being was unfair. “They can take the kids with them to visit. Or they can hire a babysitter,” added the commenter.

One other netizen advised the Redditor to avoid giving explanations the next time and simply stick to her decision. The commenter assured the OP that she was on the journey to setting boundaries and teaching her children that she would not always be available to babysit.

Comment
byu/Nervous-Discount-150 from discussion
inAmItheAsshole

The OP had much support from her readers as most felt that her son and wife were entitled to her time, so this was a lesson to both the parents and grandchildren to respect grandma’s time and how she spends it.