Grandmother refuses to look after her grandchildren without getting paid

A grandmother has taken to Reddit to share how a personal decision of hers has caused a rift in her family.

The woman explained that her daughter will be returning to work soon after a year of maternity leave and has asked her to babysit her grandson two or three days a week.

The grandma believes she should be paid for her time.

"My daughter is 29, she has a 1-year-old son and will be returning to work soon," she wrote in a post on Reddit.

"She works five days a week, about 7-8 hours a day from 7.30am-3pm, and asked me if I would be willing to babysit her son either two or three days a week."

The woman says she would love to spend time with her grandson and revealed she asked her daughter to pay her $12 per hour to do so.

According to the post on Reddit, the woman's daughter understood that the woman deserved some payment but tried to bring it down to $10 per hour, arguing her job would only pay her $22 per hour.

"She understood my need for payment but then lowballed me with requesting $10/hour because she claims that she cannot afford it even with her $22/hour job," the grandmother continued.

"I'm not a daycare, I have my own life, I work for myself and I think she should understand that I'd be giving up my time when I work from home, and if I'm going to be giving up that time then I need money to replace that time I'm giving up from my job."

She explained in the post that looking after her grandson would mean she would miss out on income of her own.

Some Reddit users called out the woman for her "lack of empathy" and pointed out she was asking for a big percentage of her daughter's income.

"Dude, just say you don't want to babysit," one person commented. "You're asking for over 2/3 of the money she's making pre-tax. Obviously, she can't afford that."

"You wanna charge your daughter more than half of what she makes to watch your grandson? If you don't wanna do it just say no and let her find someone else," someone else said.

Others agreed the woman is entitled to charge for her time but they too felt she was asking for too much, especially considering she made no mention of childcare qualifications.

"Sure, she'll probably have to pay that at a daycare centre - maybe even more. But a centre comes with qualifications and certifications. Why do you feel like you deserve a pay rate almost equal to professional daycare workers?" one person responded.

"In my area these are the qualifications for paid child care workers who earn that much who also manage more than one child at a time," someone else said.

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.