It’s always nice when family offers to babysit for free, but parents shouldn’t assume that family members will be willing to babysit for free.

If you agreed to babysit a sibling’s children, would you insist on getting paid? If they claimed they couldn’t afford to pay you, would you point out something they could do to generate more income?

In today’s story, one person agreed to babysit for her sister, but now she’s wondering if she should speak up about how her sister could in fact afford to pay her.

Let’s read all the details.

AITAH If I put my foot down to my sister abt her lazy MIL?

My (late 20’s) little sister (early 20’s) has a couple kids but she and her husband work full time so she sometimes needs childcare.

I agreed to watch her kids on the weekends under the impression that I’d be getting paid so that I could get to her place without help (I am disabled and don’t drive, I rely totally on my family if I don’t have money for Uber).

I’ve been really lucky that my family CAN help but I feel guilty that they feel obligated to me and I have no way to pay them back.

She’s not getting paid.

Unfortunately my sister and her husband don’t have the funds for that, but her MIL lives with them, works fulltime, and doesn’t contribute ANY money into the house.

Would it be a jerk move to pressure my sister and bil to tell her she needs to start paying rent or a bill so that they can 1. afford to live and 2. afford to pay me?

It might be better just to refuse to babysit. Let the MIL babysit since she lives there.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks the MIL should help out.

This person suggests not mentioning the situation with the MIL.

Here’s another similar comment.

She needs to be honest about needing a ride.

It’s not her place to decide how they can afford to pay her.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.