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I just bought my parents some artwork as a Thank You for all the times they have babysat. They would never take money.

My parents are our before/aftercare. All in, it's probably about 20 hours a week.

They would never accept payment, it would be insulting to them. They love the time they have with my son, he pays them in hugs and kisses.

My mom is our primary care for DS. She watches DS at our home M-W, and I drop him off on my busy days Th/Fr. She also watches him for overnights (weddings, etc.).

She would never accept any money. She retired to do this and her and my dad were living in an apt the past few years. DH and I bought them a home (an investment property for us) last year and they LOVE it

We also use holidays/bday as an excuse to treat her and make her accept money/gifts she otherwise would not accept.

My mom watches DS while DH and I work and we pay her. She gave up her job to do this for us and because she wanted to. I knew that one day I would have to pay for childcare, so I'd rather give her the money.

If/when I return to work, my mom will watch LO & we will pay her as if she were a nanny. She babysits a lot already though & would not want to get paid for that, but we both view full time care differently.

My parents live 8 hours away so they don't help on a regular basis but they did come for a couple weeks to help us move and cover day care while we waited for a spot in our new city. To thank them I got them reservations at a really nice big name restaurant. The kind where you have to get reservations a month in advance. They had been talking about going there for 30 years.

Their server made a big fuss over them when he found out their dinner was a "baby sitting thank you" instead of the millionth birthday/anniversary/date. He said they must be the best babysitters. I think that made them feel really special. They LOVED telling all their family and friends that their daughter & SIL sent them out for a fancy evening. Now everyone wants to babysit for us.

It took some advanced planning because I had to get the reservation for when they would be in town but it really wasn't THAT expensive (way less than the day care they covered).

My mom lived with us for 3-4 weeks at a time to care for LMW for the first 5 months. Not sure if they would have accepted money but we didn't talk about it... they definitely didn't expect any money, but maybe they would have accepted it if we offered. At the end we bought her a North Face long coat she had her eye on and I made her a necklace with a real opal and ruby (hers and LMW's birthstones). And we bought a lot of dinners.

My MIL watched Noelle until she was 20 months (then we put her in preschool), then she started watching Jaren when he was born, and is going to watch him until he is 18 months. Yes - we do pay... They have no retirement, and no other source of income or else I know she wouldn't have accepted it... they were in a very difficult financial spot, so this was our way of helping them out while they help us out. It also makes us feel less guilty about her watching him all day long since it can be so tiring.

My ILs watch LO once a week for us. I highly highly doubt they would take money for it. But I have also been thinking about what to gift them as a thank you. I was just thinking we do gifts for daycae teachers all the time around the holidays, etc. But we don't thank her own grandparents!

My mom watched my niece/nephew and now my nephew FT. She quit her job and basically retired to do that. She has no income besides the measely SS check. So yes, my brothers did and do pay her. Otherwise she wouldn't even have money to feed herself! Their situation is a little different though because she lives with them. So part of that money is family grocery money. But I know around the holidays they always give her a nice fat red envelope. My mom came and will be coming to stay with us for two months after LO is born. And each time we will give her a fat red envelope as thank you. Seeing as she won't get money from my brothers when she's not watching my nephew. I think it's the right thing to do.

IF my ILs had quit their job to watch LO full time then I would feel differently about paying them.

My dad and FIL watch LO during the week. We usually give them bigger gifts around Father's Day or birthdays. But my dad does it twice/week, so we get him a gas gift card. He drives about 45 minutes to and from every day he watches LO and that can take up a lot of gas!