Divided Internet: His mother wants to charge him for taking care of his grandson even though he lives “for free” at home

In Latin America it is “common” for grandmothers to take care of grandchildren without receiving anything in return. But this activity could be modified, since more and more grandmothers demand financial compensation for the care of their grandchildren, since raising a child is not easy and carries a great responsibility.

Due to this, a user of the forum for parents Mumsnet Limited, identified as Candy Floss, said that her mother was charging her to take care of her son, who is her grandson, despite the fact that he lives at home, she does not contribute a single penny for expenses and receives a monthly pension from the government.

I have a nine-month-old son and for a year, my mother lives with me and my husband. She has helped us a lot taking care of my son when my husband and I are in trouble. This has been great and much appreciated and at first I thought I was happy to help because it expressed how much I wanted a grandchild before my son was born.

So we let her stay with us so she can spend more time with her grandson. However, she recently said that she now wants to be paid to take care of my son and is upset that we haven’t paid her anything. She did not indicate that she expected payment in the first place. Does this seem reasonable at all? Given that she is staying with us, has no expenses, is divorced with no partner, is retired, and receives a monthly pension from the government, so it’s not like she lost any work income anyway. We have also taken her on vacation with us, without asking her for a single penny for expenses.

If anything, it hurts me more that she feels this way, from my point of view, paying her feels like a transaction and not the fact that he’s her grandson. I am more than happy to pay any expenses she may incur in caring for my son, but in our case, there are none because she lives with us. But if you want to get paid, you might as well take my son to daycare when I go back to work.

This situation has sparked a great debate on social networks, as there are those who say that the grandmother deserves a payment because caring for a child is a great responsibility, while others believe that she is taking advantage of the situation to obtain her own benefit.