Grandparents are often the lifeline of a family, bringing together different relatives. It’s no wonder that parents rely on them for guidance and support when dealing with life’s learning curves. Sometimes, entitled parents may lean on grandparents for help a little too much, which can lead to problems.

A grandma on Reddit shared that she was forced to do babysitting duties for days, and once the children’s parents were back, a simple misunderstanding between them created a huge problem. 

More info: Reddit

Grandma is forced to babysit her son’s kids and takes them to Epcot one day, but when her daughter-in-law finds out, she loses her mind

Image credits: Greg Park (not the actual photo)

Woman was forced to babysit her grandkids for 5 days while their parents were in Mexico, DIL didn’t ask her own mother, saying the “woman’s family is more important than the man’s”

Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual photo)

The grandma decided to babysit after her son got emotional, but since she was invited to a birthday party at Epcot during one of the days, she took the children along

Image credits: Monique Pinto (not the actual photo)

When her son and DIL returned, they were enraged at missing their kids’ first Disney trip and called the grandma entitled, saying she “robbed” them of the experience

Image credits: u/Simple-Band-9096

The son asked her to apologize and also forced her to share the story online because he believed she was the jerk in the situation

Bored Panda reached out to Original Poster (OP) u/Simple-Band-9096 to understand how she felt about the situation that unfolded between her son and daughter-in-law. She shared, “I feel great and have no regrets.” She also clarified more about the events in the comments saying: “My son originally wasn’t going to go to Mexico with her, but they decided they desperately needed alone time. They were both pretty emotional when they left about how badly they needed a break, so I’m assuming that’s why they didn’t call.”

After the son and his wife returned from their trip, they were shocked to hear about the visit to Epcot. The DIL felt that she was robbed of seeing her children’s first visit to Disney and she took her outrage out on the grandmother. The poster’s son even demanded an apology from her. When asked whether she had spoken to her daughter-in-law after that interaction, the poster shared, “She has not spoken to me, thank god.” It seems that they have a difficult relationship that has been building up for some time.

It might seem like a shocking thing for an adult to get mad about something as simple as a Disney trip, until you realize that there are many Disney adults who are extremely passionate about the brand and place. A survey of 1,300 Disney adults found that at least a third of them engaged with the company as a child, and others developed a connection with it because of their parents. In fact, they are so passionate about it that 91% of the respondents said they would be a Disney adult till the day they die.

So, along with the shock they displayed because of the Epcot trip, the author also told us that her son was angry for a different reason. “He is upset because I told people the truth that they only care about my husband’s money.” She explained more about it in the comments of the post, saying: “They believe they will get my husband’s money. They absolutely will not, but he’s still my kid, and I still love him. I wouldn’t call him unwanted family. I have told them they will never have that money.”

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Image credits: Michael Lehet (not the actual photo)

With more context to the situation, it’s easy to see that trouble was already brewing between the grandmother, her son, and her daughter-in-law. With an already shaky relationship, it’s no wonder that a simple visit to Epcot might have caused tensions to rise even more.

In this situation, the parents decided to go on a trip and leave their children with the grandmother. Despite her saying no, they forced her to babysit for 4 nights and 5 days. An article about uninvolved grandparents states that some of them can have other work and commitments, so it’s often hard to fit in time to babysit grandchildren. It’s not that they don’t want to look after their grandkids, they might just be too tired to manage. In this case, the extended babysitting duties must have put a strain on the poster, considering she did not want to do it in the first place.

It’s interesting to note that studies on grandparents’ health and longevity found that the more they pitch in with babysitting, the better their odds of living longer. This is because childcare pushes them to stay active, and it can have many health benefits. Also, it’s been observed that helping behavior has been associated with better health, which can lead to a longer lifespan.

That being said, grandparents aren’t free babysitting machines that parents can turn to whenever they want. It’s important for there to be mutual respect so that both parties feel heard. The post received 12k votes and 8.1k comments. Netizens were divided, with some people siding with the author and others feeling like some part of the story was missing. Do you feel that the grandmother was right to take her grandkids to Epcot without asking the parents? Let us know your honest thoughts in the comments.

Commenters asked for more information because many felt that there was more to the story than the poster let on, others felt that the grandmother was right 

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