Concerned Mom No Longer Wants To Entrust Her Son To Her Mother-In-Law Who Has Been Negligent Toward The Baby

The baby also caught the MIL's COVID.

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• Published in Interesting
• April 2, 2024

Child care can be expensive for some parents. That's why it's such a huge relief when relatives help out and take care of the baby.

But in some cases, relatives aren't the best babysitters, especially for babies, who need an extra level of care. Take mothers-in-law as an example.

It's easy to think that babysitting work will be a no-brainer for them. After all, they have gone through the experience themselves.

But the thing is that they might have already forgotten some of the finer details or safety precautions necessary for infant care, especially if it's been a long time since they had their own children. Additionally, there may be differences in parenting styles or preferences between the mother-in-law and the baby's parents, which can lead to misunderstandings or conflicts.

Today's story shared on the "Am I The A**hole?" (AITA) subreddit is the perfect example of why children cannot be entrusted to some mothers-in-law. The original poster (OP) is a mom who has a six-month-old baby.

She told the community that her MIL has decided to retire to watch over her son. But the OP doesn't like the idea as she has witnessed what happened between her sister and mother before.

The OP's MIL assumed she'd be watching the baby full-time, but the OP only wanted her to babysit 1-2 days a week due to her flexible job. However, during the few months the MIL watched the baby, there were multiple issues.

The MIL didn't follow the feeding schedule, gave unsafe advice, and even gave the baby COVID-19 because she didn't think she was contagious. The OP's husband, unfortunately, didn't assert boundaries with his mother, leaving the OP feeling frustrated and unsupported.

Now, the OP is wondering if she's the a-hole for not wanting her MIL to watch her son ever again.

After witnessing the negligence of her MIL towards her son, the OP posted this question.

The OP wasn't completely on board with her MIL watching over her son full-time because of what her sister experienced with their mom.

The MIL gets upset upon learning that she won't be watching over her grandchild full time.

The MIL has been negligent and her actions are considered risky toward the baby.

The OP has another problem. Her husband doesn't know how to communicate boundaries with the MIL.

The simplest response to the OP's story. No explanation needed.

Babysitters who don't practice common sense are the most dangerous ones kids.

Trusting the MIL would be a very bad idea.

It's also time for the OP to give her husband a wake up call. Maybe these comments from online users will urge him to talk to his mom.

The OP and her husband need to be a team in setting boundaries to protect their child.

The OP needs to write down all the MIL's actions that make her uneasy.

Then, together with her husband, she needs to communicate those things with the MIL.

The OP has already proven that entrusting her baby to her MIL is risky. She needs to establish boundaries with her MIL before any unfortunate incidents occur.

The married couple might also need to look into paid child care. Or the mom has to fix her work schedule to make time to care for her baby.

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