New Mom Shoots For The Moon With Babysitting Demands, SIL Walks Out Over Her Mistreatment

Do you want me to tell you what the highest degree of professional recognition actually is? Yes, of course, crowds of clients, promotions at work, respect among colleagues – these are all signs, but the main thing is when your relatives insistently demand that you urgently help them by your trade. Of course, completely free of charge.

A similar situation once happened to the user u/anon0067, the narrator of today’s story, who even moved in with her brother and his wife to help with babysitting for free, but in the end, faced some serious problems. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

More info: Reddit

The author of the post is a professional babysitter who has been helping her brother and his wife with their triplets for some time

Postpartum woman holding a baby in the kitchen, showing the challenges of helping with triplets and family tension.

Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

The family already has 3 elder kids, so the auntie’s help was actually of great need – and she even moved in with them

Postpartum lady feeling overwhelmed while helping with triplets, leading to tension with sister-in-law and quitting the support role

Postpartum lady stressed by sister-in-law while helping care for triplets, leading to frustration and quitting the help.

Text about a postpartum lady being impatient and offering solutions while helping care for triplets.

Image credits: anon0067

Woman enjoying time with her children outdoors, highlighting postpartum challenges and family dynamics with triplets.

Image credits: Brooke Cagle / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

But then the new mom started nagging at the author’s alleged “faults” – probably out of postpartum depression

Text excerpt on screen about offering solutions and dealing with postpartum depression from a brother’s point of view.

Text on a white background about discussing postpartum challenges with a brother to find middle ground involving triplets.

Postpartum lady frustrated while helping with triplets, leading to stress and quitting the caregiving role.

Postpartum lady upset and stressed while helping with triplets, leading to quitting due to constant pressure from SIL.

Image credits: anon0067

Postpartum lady helping with triplets by styling young girl's hair while child focuses on drawing at table indoors

Image credits: Frank Flores / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

This mistreatment regarded numerous petty things, and the last straw for the author was the SIL’s dig over her tank top while feeding the triplets

Text from a message about a postpartum lady causing tension while helping with triplets, questioning if she is wrong.

Text from a postpartum lady thanking readers for their advice as her sister-in-law seeks therapy for postpartum depression.

Text post about quitting helping with triplets, deciding to focus on babysitting and self-care instead.

Image credits: anon0067

The aunt announced she wanted to leave – and immediately took heat from the bro and his wife for being “selfish” and “a betrayer”

So, the Original Poster (OP) tells us that shortly before the events described, her sister-in-law gave birth to triplets, so there were six kids in the bro’s family. Previously, they already had children of 4, 7 and 9 years old. Our heroine worked as a babysitter and had previously helped her brother and his wife, so now she accepted their offer to simply move in with them.

At first, everything was going well, but then, apparently, the author’s sister-in-law had postpartum depression, and she chose the volunteer nanny as one of the main targets for her criticism. There wasn’t a day that the mother didn’t find fault with something that the OP did. Feeding the younger kids, brushing the older children’s hair, doing the chores…

It got to the point that the SIL found fault with our heroine for just wearing a tank top while feeding one of the triplets – “because she didn’t want them to get used to the aunt’s smell.” The original poster tolerated this for a long time and honestly tried to suck it up, but sooner or later, everything comes to an end. The story with her tank top was the last straw.

She told the bro and his spouse that she was moving out and planned to return to babysitting – but this time as a job, for money. It immediately turned out that the SIL allegedly couldn’t trust anyone else with her children except the author – and she, as it turns out, wasn’t so bad… The OP was dumped with a whole bunch of accusations of ingratitude and “betrayal,” and she simply decided to seek support online.

Postpartum lady arguing and frustrated while sitting on a couch, expressing tension with sister-in-law helping with triplets.

Image credits: Blake Cheek / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

In fact, postpartum depression is actually quite a widespread issue that new moms have to deal with. For example, the Cleveland Clinic website claims that out of 100 mothers, about 75 experience the so-called baby blues (long and frequent bouts of tearfulness, sadness and anxiety for no apparent reason), and of these, 15 actually have postpartum depression.

In such cases, as the NHS of the UK official website notes, there are various ways to help a new mother – from self-help and talk therapy with a specialist, to taking antidepressants. “The best thing you can do is find support and ask for help from friends, family or your partner,” the Cleveland Clinic website sums up reasonably.

People in the comments also noted that six kids in a family, three of whom are babies, is really a lot, and the parents really need help. But at the same time, this is not a reason to criticize a free volunteer assistant for literally little things and trifles. “You offered to help and did not deserve to be treated that way,” someone wisely noted.

In any case, according to the responders, our heroine tried for too long not to take this blatant mistreatment to heart, so now it’s worth just walking out and, perhaps, recommending a decent professional caregiver. For money, of course. So what’s your opinion on this case? Please feel free to drop your ideas in the comments below.

Most commenters agreed that this family actually needed help – but not at the cost of the author’s mental health

Reddit comments discussing postpartum lady's challenging behavior and need for professional help with postpartum depression.

Reddit conversation about postpartum lady overwhelming sister-in-law while helping with triplets, leading to her quitting.

Screenshot of a forum discussion about tension involving a postpartum lady and her sister-in-law helping with triplets.

Text message conversation discussing postpartum lady struggling with hormones and depression while caring for triplets.

Screenshot of a Reddit conversation about a postpartum lady causing tension while helping with triplets and deciding to quit.

Comment on postpartum lady stressing SIL while helping with triplets, highlighting stress and inappropriate complaints.

Screenshot of a Reddit comment discussing a postpartum lady causing tension while helping with triplets and quitting due to distrust.

Text comment discussing how being a postpartum lady helping with triplets can lead to feeling taken advantage of without proper respect or pay.

Poll Question

Total votes ·

Thanks! Check out the results:

Total votes ·

Newsletter

Subscribe to Access
Exclusive Polls

Subscribe

By entering your email and clicking Subscribe, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Privacy Policy.

Thank you! You've successfully subscribed to newsletters!

Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing!

Follow Bored Panda on Google News!

Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda!