Kids are expensive, and when both parents work, it gets even more expensive because they also have to pay for childcare.

Learn how one Redditor’s husband’s lack of research in the childcare world led him to have a strained relationship with his mother-in-law.

Dive into the story below to get started.

AITA for telling my mom not to babysit anymore when my husband changed his mind?

My husband is a lawyer, and I’m an engineer.

We both have intense careers, but he wanted a second child. I was happy with our daughter, but he really wanted another child.

We now have 2 daughters aged (3 and 1), and I came back from maternity leave, and my mom took over full-time caring for them.

Her mom is basically their nanny.

We both work full time, so she takes them when we work.

My mom is a nurse but quit to look after our kids.

I insisted we should pay her the going rate for daycares in the area, which is around $1,500 a child.

But the services included well past what a normal daycare would do.

So, we [paid] $3,000 for her to care for our children, cook for them, etc.

She [also picked] them up sometimes, as we [needed] to be in the office early.

However, her husband was upset at the cost.

My husband complained a lot about how expensive it was to pay her.

He makes $140k, and I make $110k, so we can afford to pay her.

He even had the audacity to complain in front of the mother-in-law.

But he thinks we are overpaying her and complained about it to her face.

My mom is not very confrontational, but she got very upset.

I argued with him on this for months until I decided it was better for her to go back to work and for us to use daycare.

So, the wife made the switch, and they paid the price…

Finding a daycare was hard and now we pay $1,800 a child for daycare, and daycares obviously will not pickup your children, nor will they cook for them.

We have less time now and at a higher cost for our children to be sick a lot during the winter season.

This is when things get really messy.

So far this year, we have been sick, as an entire household, three times.

I was on a business trip, and my husband was late picking up our children, which resulted in a $75 late charge, which my mom would have not charged extra for.

My husband is now demanding that my mom leave her job to go back to babysitting our children.

But I won’t let her because he did no research into the real cost of childcare and kept complaining how expensive it is even when I showed him.

And the mother-in-law is making more money than before.

My mom, even part time, makes $4,300 a month as a nurse, and I told my husband if we want her doing the child care, we need to pay her that amount.

Remember, we already pay $3,600 for daycare.

He wants her to go back to the $3,000 charge and is angry and claims my mom is asking for too much for such a simple job and that a grandma taking care of her grandchildren is a “privilege”.

But the wife had a thing or two to say about that.

I told her not to quit and that she isn’t babysitting, which reduces his number of free hours and makes our lifestyle harder.

So, he is angry at me for demanding we pay her what I feel she is owed.

My mom probably would do it for free if we wanted, but I definitely don’t think it’s fair.

She needs to save for retirement, and she has bills as well.

AITA here?

Should her mom keep working or quit and go back to babysitting? Who is in the wrong here?

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about the situation.

Read the comments below to find out more.

Redditors said “NTA” — but some needed more information.

Others had concerns about the husband’s treatment.

People agreed the wife’s perspective was fair.

And some wanted to know what else the husband complains about.

This husband messed up a sweet setup.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.