We totally would have, but our parents lived so far away that we never had the chance! We moved to be near my mom, but she's pretty busy and we have a nanny here... so the opportunity hasn't come up yet.
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No help here! Even when we go to visit, none of the grandparents help. They buy clothes and toys, and give hugs and kisses, but no help at meals, with diapers, babysitting, nothing. Once I convinced my MIL to watch the baby while I took a 10 min shower. That's it. They all love being grandparents, but babies are just not their thing. After pottytraining it should change.!
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Not for regular day-to-day childcare. But my mom will watch DS for a long weekend every few months. And my in-laws will watch him for a day here and there when we need it.
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Our parents all live far away, but when we need then and are willing to pay their flight/gas money, they will come and watch our girls if we leave overnight.
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Both sets of parents are across the country. When we do visit they clearly love LO but babies aren't their thing so it's not very hands-on helping.
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Not for regular day-to-day childcare. My mom occasionally babysits or takes LO for a weekend here or there.
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Not day to day, but every blue moon someone will babysit for a couple of hours.
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when the little ones were babies, they would watch 2 days a week, and then it became 1 day a week, and now it's none, but the older one is now in elementary, and the younger one is almost 4. they live about 45 minutes away, but the commute was really bad for them and they felt like they wanted to slow down with age, so I understood and I was grateful that they watched them when they were babies and have a great relationship with the kids. they still do help from time to time. it was just kind of funny, with their 1st grandchild (not our girls), they were upset with the mom for restricting them to watch only 1 day per week, and now by the umpteempth grandchild, they didn't want to watch regularly anymore.
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No help here. Our parents live too far away. When they visit, we go out for date nights.
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No help here. My folks are 3 hours away. FIL is 6 hours away, along with DH's close family. The nearest family to me is 2 hours away. I don't even have help from DH most of my week due to his schedule. I rock the solo parent hat a lot.
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No help here
my parents live 3 hours away. MIL lives in our same town but for multiple reason she doesn't watch our kids.
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My parents are within an hour but due to poor health they can't drive and we end up helping them more than them helping us.
My inlaws visit twice a year. I wish they'd visit more or offer to help more. -
My inlaws live close (walking distance) and mil babysits about 3-4 times a year. She is really busy!
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My mom comes into town when I have big work projects, but day to day no. It's hard, but we make it
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Everyone lives too far away (airplane), so help isn't an option. The love spending time with the kids when they visit, so we usually get a little break with they come.
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We don't have help from family. My parents are a 2.5 hour flight away, and DH's parents are across the ocean. When they come to visit, they are very happy to babysit, but we have a nanny for our regular childcare.
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nope we don't live near family. My mom visits every few months and she will babysit so we can have a date night or i can go out to get my haircut or something. she also stayed with me for a month when each baby was born. And she came down and took care of DS1 between nannies for 2 months a couple of years ago. So i have been fortunate in those instances, but we don't have family child care on a regular basis.
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My sister lives nearby and has helped out a ton! She's babysat for a few hours, watched DD overnight once, and has kept me company when DH has had to go out of town on business. It's been great! My IL's are nearby and would help as well but I don't trust my MIL so we don't let them babysit. My parents live 8 hours away but they normally babysit at least once when we see them so we can have a date night.
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Not for regular child care. My parents live 40idh minutes away so that isn't practical and they are still pretty busy. But they do babysit occasionally.
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No help here. Period. We live away from all our family on both sides, so we only get help when we visit either side of the family for holidays. Even then it's usually little stuff, like hey, can you make sure my kid doesn't hurt himself whilst I shower? Lol
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Both sets are a plane ride away. My parents are awesome and help as much as possible for being far. When our second was born my dad came for 3 weeks to help. This fall he's coming for a week, he'll cook for us, handle day care pick up and drop off, babysit while we have a date night, get some projects done around the house while we are at work and the kids are at school, etc. and be here to help while my son gets ear tubes. My in laws probably wish we would let them help more when they visit but there are a number of reasons I'm not comfortable leaving my kids with them.
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No regular help here! My in laws can help on sick days occasionally. And we will ask my parents when we go on vacation. But they live 1.5 and 3.5 hours away, so not close enough to help more.
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My parents live across the country. The in-laws live 45 min away, so every few months they watch the kids for a date night/afternoon. They'd probably do it more often, but I'm not really interested in dealing with it more frequently.
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Not regularly. My parents are two hours away and my mom can come for a day if DD has a fever and can't go to daycare. My in-laws are 15 minutes away and already overburdened with child care taking care my my niece and nephew. DD goes to daycare center full time and we have a paid babysitter for date nights.
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Nope. My parents aren't living, and my in laws live on another continent. My sisters are too busy and live over an hour away.
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Not for day to day child care, but my parents and mil will babysit occasionally for date nights or sometimes during the day if our center is closed for a break or something like that
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I wish! In-laws are 4.5 hours away and FIL is not in good health. My dad lives 17+ hour drive or 2 flights away and my mom passed away when LO was 7 months old. My sister is our closest family and she does watch LO for a few hours every now and then, but nothing we can count on regularly since she's so far and works during the week.
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We have no family at all anywhere near us. When they visit, they love to babysit so DH and I can go on a date- so maybe four dates a year
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@mediagirl: this is us too. We lived with my ILs for 9 months once but other than that we've always lived far from everyone. When they visit or we visit them we take advantage and go on date nights or even go away a few nights.
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Nope. Our parents aren't 'kid people'.
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We don't have grandparents as primary care providers. That was the plan with my mom had we not moved, but she lied about not smoking so that would have been short lived anyway.
My dad babysat for us one evening and he's up for that sort of thing.
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Our parents live too far away, but I don't think they would want to be our child care even if they lived closer. They visit once a year and will watch the kids so we can have a date night though.
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No, but they will fly in to watch LO if we go away for a weekend or trip!
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Only the occasional weekend. We live almost 3 hours drive from my parents and a plane ride from MIL so it's not surprising.
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They will on weekends, for limited amounts of time. They seem to have an easier time with it now that LO's older and more independent. We still use daycare for day-to-day and a babysitter for date nights though.
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Just weekend babysitting a couple times a year.
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We have no family locally. My mom and stepdad come visit about every 2 months (they are a 14 hour drive or 2 hour flight away). When they are here, they help with childcare and are really wonderful. My ILs we see maybe twice a year (they live really far away) and when we are together, they don't do childcare and nor would I want them to. They would let him cry and feed him stuff he's allergic to.
It's hard. I really, really wish we had family locally to help.
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All our family members are at least 2 hours away. I'm not sure what's going to happen if we have a second and I go into labor! When we visit family my brother's wife will babysit. My MiL can but I feel bad asking her to because she's very busy (works pt) and is helping out a lot with her other grandkids (my SIL has four under five with infant twins).
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Nope, too far away. If we lived close, I doubt my parents would provide day to day care, but I would love to be able to go on more date nights. We fit one in before they left after he was born and it was really nice.
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We have help for babysitting but not for regular care while we work. Our families aren't interested in that which is fine with us.
my parents live 3 hours away. MIL lives in our same town but for multiple reason she doesn't watch our kids.
My dad babysat for us one evening and he's up for that sort of thing.
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45 comments