Many parents struggle to find time for themselves when it comes to adjusting to a new baby.

A good babysitter can be a godsend, and although this mother-in-law insists on helping with their grandchild, her constant last-minute cancellations leave this couple questioning if they can ever really rely on her.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for expecting my MIL to babysit

My husband and I have a 6 month old baby. We live 5 minutes down the street from my in laws (my parents are 2 hours away).

My MIL has always been big about wanting to help with the baby, and before she was born, has offered to watch her while I am at work.

The new mother is careful to not overwhelm her MIL with the responsibility, but MIL doesn’t seem to bat an eye.

I asked many times to make sure that she was still ok with that (making sure to state that we were fine sending her to daycare), but she insisted that she wanted to.

So now she watches our daughter for 1.5 days a week. We offered to pay her, she said she didn’t need it.

My MIL has been stressing to my husband and I how important it is to spend time with each other without the baby, and often (this comes up probably twice a month) says she will watch the baby so that we can go out together.

She has even offered to take the baby overnight. The problem comes when we try to take her up on it.

Although, they start to notice that she’s starting to flake on her committments.

There have been now several occasions where she bails on us last minute, claiming that she forgot or that she thought we weren’t serious about it.

Most recently, my husband bought concert tickets and she was going to watch the baby, but now says she has plans.

My FIL told us he would watch the baby, and she got very angry at him and said he couldn’t.

I’m ticked at her for flaking last minute.

The mother is now conflicted, wondering if she’s expecting too much.

On the one hand, I think if she doesn’t want to babysit, she needs to say so instead of pretending that she is willing to watch the baby.

On the other, I feel like my husband and I are entitled for assuming that it is her job to watch the baby – after all, it is our kid not hers.

And we could always hire a babysitter, which I think we are going to do, but I’m still mad.

If you can’t count on family, then who can you count on?

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks the woman has given her mother-in-law more than enough chances.

This commenter muses about what’s really going on in the MIL’s head.

It’s starting to seem like her initial babysitting offers never really held any weight.

The couple wasn’t wrong for expecting the MIL to follow through.

Sometimes the measure of a good babysitter isn’t just proximity, but reliability.

Sometimes people offer more words than action.

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