When starting a family, one thing that’s very important to parents is finding a good babysitter or someone who can look after their kids for a night or two whenever they need. Parents are very fortunate when their own parents will step up and spend time with their grandchildren.
Sometimes, grandparents are the best fallbacks of everyone around.
What better way to spend time as a family, right?
Grandparents oftentimes consider themselves lucky to get extra time to spend with their grandchildren, even if it means they are being the designated babysitters from time to time.
Many times, grandparents are the only option that some parents have, if they can’t get a reliable babysitter.
Sometimes, though, grandparents don’t want to be the “fall back.”
Some grandparents don’t necessarily want to be the ones that kids rely on or look to for babysitting duties.
Some of them feel that they should be compensated the same as a babysitter would if they are doing the same job.
One grandparent wrote into a Reddit thread asking if they’re wrong for their take on things.
“My daughter is 29, she has a 1 year old son and will be returning to work soon.
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She works 5 days a week, about 7-8 hours a day from 7:30am-3pm, and asked me if I would be willing to babysit her son either 2 or 3 days a week,” the Reddit user wrote.
The grandparent requested payment for their time.
The grandparent explained that they are open to spending time with their grandson, but they do need to be paid for that time.
So, they asked their daughter if she would pay $12 an hour for the time spent. However, the daughter said she could only afford $10 an hour since she herself only makes $22/hour.
The Reddit user said the need for payment is to make up for loss of wages they would usually make.
The grandparent shared that they are “not a daycare” and they work from home, so the time spent with their grandson would be lost wages that they would usually be made while working from home.
The grandparent said that they “can’t do both” either.
Working from home and watching their grandson is not possible due to the attention that their grandson needs.
The daughter also said it’s only 2-3 days a week because her husband’s parents would be doing the other days she needs.
While the daughter is providing food, the grandparent is not happy.
Still, despite the inclusion of food every day and even offering the $10 an hour, the grandparent said that they are still not a daycare facility and can’t seem to have it work in their head to work out well.
The Reddit user asked the community if they’re wrong for this take on the situation.
Many said that this grandparent was in the wrong for requesting so much money from their own daughter.
Apparently, the math comes out to be that her daughter would be paying over 2/3 of her paycheck just to have the Reddit user watch their own grandson.
Others said the grandparent is focusing on the wrong thing.
“If you don’t want to do it, say so. But also realize, this is an enormous bonding time with the grandkid you’ll never get back. These are also the people who will ne taking care of you when you’re old and no longer able to,” one person said.
Another added that with the other grandparents watching the grandson, things will become choppy.
One Reddit user said that if the other grandparents already said yes, they are going to develop a closer bond and relationship with the grandson and this grandparent will be upset about it because it will be like playing favorites.
Some, however, thought asking for money at all was wrong.
Some commenters said that maybe it’s their own culture or religion, but, they can’t believe that any grandparent would ask to be paid to spend time with their grandchild. It’s family, they shouldn’t ask to get paid.
Do you agree?
