Being a parent is a very challenging and time-consuming job. Raising humans is no easy task — you are responsible for them all day and all night. Sometimes, it can make it pretty hard to get things done.
Fortunately, the whole “it takes a village” saying reigns true for some mothers. When we need to get things done outside of the home, sometimes our parents or our in-laws can step in and pick up the load for us. It’s quite refreshing to know we can count on our families and friends when we need them the most.
Things, however, can get complicated
While we usually trust our families with our children, things can become complicated when our parents don’t always agree with the way we want to raise our children. Of course, this can become pretty hard when we need a hand with the kids, too.
It’s hard to know everything that goes on
When someone else is watching our kids for us, we don’t always know every little detail of the day and what goes on. There can be a lot of empty time and loopholes, maybe things that happen that we wouldn’t necessarily do or agree with.
This can cause tension between families
Families that don’t agree can become at odds. Some moms may choose not to let their family members watch their kids in the future if they feel they can’t trust them when they are gone.
One mom recently faced this issue with her own mother-in-law
The mom shared on the Mumsnet forum that her mother-in-law was watching her four and five-year-old children and took them to the park.
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She decided to go back to the house to grab some water for the kids and instead of taking the kids with her, she opted to leave them at the park with a woman she had just met there — about 10 minutes prior, the mom said.
When the mother-in-law came home without the kids, the mom panicked
Clearly, any mom would be a bit concerned if someone was watching your children and then returned home without them.
Her mother-in-law explained they were “safe” and having fun at the park, but the mom was not convinced. She threw her shoes on and ran to the park to check on her children.
Despite the other woman being “charming,” she was still a complete stranger
The mom further emphasized that the woman could probably be a mother herself, or very nice, but it’s someone who does not know her, her mother-in-law, or her kids really. Anything can happen in that span of time.
Her mother-in-law didn’t see it as such a big problem and instead brushed it off like nothing was wrong. She asked the other parents on the forum if she was being unreasonable for being so angry at her mother-in-law.
All of the parents on the forum agreed it was hazardous
Many moms agreed that the mother-in-law put the kids in danger and made a bad choice, indicating that the mom may not be able to trust her again.
“Her judgment and arrogance makes her unsuitable to care for your children unsupervised. That is not a normal thing to do. Run to the car whilst they were still in her sight to collect water? Ok. Walk 10 minutes back home? Absolutely bats–t,” one mother commented.
Others said it can teach her kids bad habits
While the woman who was watching the kids at the park may have been nice, it was a complete stranger.
One mom said that her mother-in-law leaving them with the stranger could teach them that it’s okay to talk to strangers when it can put them in a very compromising and dangerous position.
One person even pointed out some loose ends that could have popped up
Another mom on the forum asked the pressing question: What if the woman watching her kids had to leave the park and her mother-in-law wasn’t there? Or, what if she had an emergency? Since the kids are so young, if one of them gets hurt, the woman may not have known what to do or how to console them.
Overall, everyone agreed it was ridiculously irresponsible of the mother-in-law.
What do you think?