I Was Called a “Built-In Babysitter” — and That’s When I Finally Said Enough

At first, I didn’t mind helping. My son and his wife were exhausted new parents trying to survive on coffee and three hours of sleep. I started stopping by after work to fold laundry, cook dinner, or hold a baby so they could nap. It felt good to be needed again.

Soon, though, “helping” quietly turned into expectation. I’d arrive to find a baby already waiting in my arms and another crying in the crib. My daughter-in-law would call from the hallway, “Can you change that one? I have to run a quick errand.”

Quick errands turned into full afternoons, and before long, whole evenings. I didn’t even realize I had become the default caregiver until one morning I heard her tell a friend on the phone, “I’m so lucky — I have a built-in babysitter.”

The words should have rolled off me, but they didn’t. They stuck like a splinter.

The Job I Never Agreed To

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