Grandparents ask son to babysit while his wife is giving birth

They asked their son to return home from the hospital to help look after his other children, because the birth was taking ‘a really long time.’

It was the grandmother, 71, who took to Reddit to explain her side of the story.

She explained: ‘I have a son, 39, whose wife, 36, gave birth to their fourth child nine months ago.

‘All of her births have taken a long time, and she has been induced the last two times, including this one.

‘My husband, 72, and I were babysitting the three older kids (5 male, 4 female and 2 female).

‘She was induced at eight in the morning, and by one in the afternoon, there was not much progress, if any at all.

‘Since the kids are a handful, I told my son he needed to come home to help for a few hours, since it looked like it would take a really long time.’

The grandmother added that it was only a half an hour drive to the hospital so her son could easily go back and support his wife if anything happened, and be there when the child was born.

She added: ‘I of course understand it is a big moment for him and his wife.’

But unsurprisingly, her son and his wife didn’t take too kindly to the request.

‘My son… told me to suck it up, bribe the kids with treats or whatever worked for us, and that there was no way he would leave his wife’s side, unless there was an emergency with one of the kids.

‘I told him that the kids were their responsibility, and that they couldn’t expect us to babysit around the clock if this took days.

‘He told me we should not have said yes to babysit at all if we wouldn’t stick it out, since one never knows how long a birth will take.’

In the end, the son sent someone else to the house to babysit, and the grandparents went home. They’ve since offered to watch the children again, but were declined.

She’s also tried talking to her son and daughter-in-law about it, but to no avail.

‘They said they felt we didn’t respect them at all since we wouldn’t “even let her give birth in peace”.

‘My husband and I agree that they are overreacting, since she did not, in fact, give birth until seven the next morning, 23 hours after being induced, and our son could very easily have helped us with the kids for a few hours.’

While the woman felt like she had a strong case, the internet certainly did not agree.

One commenter wrote: ‘Asking your son to leave his labouring wife for anything short of an emergency with one of his children is a gross manipulative thing to do.’

They continued: ‘Who knows why you’re on such a big power trip… good for your son and his wife hiring a sitter instead of playing into your delusions.’

Another wrote: ‘I’m assuming since you are a mother that you have given birth before. I’m not sure why you would expect a husband to leave his wife alone in the hospital while giving birth.

‘Just because she didn’t give birth in the time he theoretically would have been there to help with the kids doesn’t mean it couldn’t have gone differently.

‘If you don’t want the responsibility of taking care of your grandchildren while your daughter-in-law is going through labour, don’t offer.

One even said: ‘You don’t come for free, you come with the burden of knowing you could let them down at any time.

‘The whole point was to look after the children while he was there to support his wife who was giving birth. But you asked him to come and babysit you instead.’

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