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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/notpayingaita on 2023-08-03 20:31:30.
My wife (39F) is turning 40 in 10 days. To celebrate, we are taking a 5 day vacation, just the 2 of us. It’s the first time that she and I (38M) have been away like this as a couple since the birth of our son almost 4 years ago. We planned this trip months ago and my wife asked her mom if she would be willing to come to our house and watch our son while we are away. MIL agreed right away.
MIL is in her early 60s but doesn’t have a “real” job. She will do cleaning for her brother who owns a bunch of rental properties and he pays her in cash. So, it’s not like she has a schedule she has to clear to stay with our son for a few days.
Last weekend, my wife called MIL to talk to her about our trip and to ask if there’s anything MIL will need/want us to stock in the house as far as food or necessities. During the conversation, MIL said that she will need $100 per day from us. This is the first time she ever brought up wanting to get paid to watch our son. My wife was caught off guard and just kind of agreed to it.
But when she got off the phone and told me about it, I got upset. I told her that MIL is taking advantage of the situation because she thinks we have no other options. I told her that is BS that she sprung this on us so close to our trip and I don’t think we should pay her anything. I said that I would call my parents and see if they can watch our son instead.
My wife told me that MIL wouldn’t ask that sort of thing unless she needs the money and that adding $500 to our vacation trip isn’t that much of a big deal. I told her that it’s not about the money to me, it’s about MIL being sneaky and manipulative.
I called my mom and asked her if they would be able to watch our son instead and she jumped at the idea. Both my parents are recently retired, so they have plenty of free time and would love an extended grandson visit. I didn’t explain the reason for the change, I just told them that things didn’t work out with MIL.
I told my wife that my parents can watch our son instead and that she should call her mom and tell her that we no longer need her to babysit. She said that she didn’t want to do that because MIL was really looking forward to seeing our son, it has been over 6-months. I told her that if she was looking forward to it that much, she wouldn’t be trying to swindle us out of $500. I told her if she didn’t want to make the call, I would gladly do it.
She reluctantly made the call herself, but it didn’t go well. MIL got upset because we are now “depriving her of seeing her grandson.” My wife got emotional and ended up backtracking and said she would talk to me and see if we could work something out. After the call, she asked me if there was some way we could figure this out and I told her we aren’t changing anything again this close to our trip.
She said maybe we could offer MIL a lesser amount but I reiterated that it isn’t about the money, it’s about MIL being sneaky and trying to take advantage of us.