A young mother’s situation has gotten a lot of attention on Reddit and started a debate about how families help each other, how generations differ, and how expensive it is to be a parent these days.
This story is about a 29-year-old woman who asked her 64-year-old mother to watch her child while she got ready to go back to work after giving birth. The request seemed simple at first, but it became more difficult when her mother insisted on being paid for her help.
The woman had just become a mother, so she had to figure out how to balance her job with the needs of her new baby. “A female Redditor opened up about a problem she was having with her mother,” she wrote on Reddit. Those were her words.
The woman told them she had just given birth and needed help taking care of her baby while she went back to work.
She thought her retired mother would be a great babysitter because she had a lot of experience and could be trusted. She was surprised by her mother’s answer. The older woman, who had been a housewife since 1992, said she didn’t want to take on a full-time caregiving job.
“The grandmother thought that she was too old and had already raised her children,” she said to describe her point of view. The mother also told her daughter that if she wanted to have a baby, she should have thought about living at home.
The young mother was clearly under a lot of financial stress. In the post, she talked about her money problems: “I make $55,000 a year, but I have $39,500 in student loans and $20,000 in other debt, such as credit card, car loan, and medical debt on credit.”
My partner has $5,000 in credit card debt and makes about $36k a year. Due to financial reasons, she had to keep working even though she was a new mom. This full breakdown showed those reasons.
The young mother was in clear need, but her mother made it very hard for her to get help. She wanted $20 an hour and extra money for picking up kids late. She also insisted on having a car seat and stroller because she wouldn’t watch at her daughter’s apartment. These terms were too expensive and hard for the young mother to follow, so she started looking into other child care choices that might be cheaper.
She gave another reason for her possible choice of a daycare: “Therefore, every penny counted for the new mother.” The grandma did not agree to watch her child for free, though.
She wanted $20 an hour, plus late fees if the parents picked up the child late, a car seat, and a stroller. She also wanted to be paid for driving the child back to her daughter’s house because she couldn’t watch from their apartment.
The Reddit community had a range of reactions. Many people said the girl seemed too spoiled. Someone said, “She doesn’t do anything but watch TV and cook meals,” which added to the idea that the grandmother, who is now retired, shouldn’t have to play such an important role without getting paid for it.
Others said that caring for children is a hard job and that the older woman was right to ask for payment.
This story showed how standards change over time and how hard it is for young families to make ends meet these days. This event has started a larger talk about the nature of family support and the financial costs of being a parent in today’s world.