My brother and sister-in-law want me to babysit my nephew, for free, sometimes multiple days a week, but won’t let me take him anywhere. Am I wrong for being upset with this arrangement?

I (27F) am currently living at home with my parents as my job is remote and I want to save money before I move out. For years I’ve been a babysitter / nanny and I LOVE babies and children. Of course this means I absolutely love and adore spending time with my nephews. I have a nephew who’s about a year old and his parents recently asked if I’d want to watch him on occasion. I replied that I’d love to have that time to get close to him, to which they said they’d need to “discuss it further” and 3 weeks later told me they want me to watch him once a week and more specifically, 4 times a week later this month when they really need the extra help. Normally this would be a no-brainer for me because I take every chance to build strong relationships with my nieces and nephews, though they told me I could watch him (as if they’re doing ME a favor) under one rule: I have to stay in the house with him.

They blamed it on Covid at first (which I already explained I’d respect not taking him anywhere indoors), but then the truth came out that my sister-in-law doesn’t want me taking him anywhere where she could miss his “first” of any experience. She doesn’t want to miss out on any reaction he may have to anything interesting outside of my house, so if I watch him, I can’t leave my 4 walls. I can’t even take him to a park. I immediately told them that’s bullshit and insane behavior because every parent of the babies I’ve ever watched love me for actually enjoying to leave the house with their kid! Sometimes they give me extra money to sit at a cafe with their baby or take them to a music group or a special class. But here I am, offering to watch my nephew for free, and I am restricted to the walls of my house.

My parents think it’s crazy as well but they said the final question is whether or not I want to watch my nephew and be close to him while I still live nearby. I think it’s more complicated than that because it’s almost as if his parents are making it very difficult for me to have fun with him on the days I would watch him.

Am I wrong in not watching to take care of him with this restriction?

Tl;dr: My brother (35M) and sister in law (32F) would like my help in watching my 1 year old nephew weekly but say I can’t leave the house with him. My sister in law is worried about missing “firsts” so she thinks as long as we are stuck in the house all day, she won’t miss anything exciting. I think it’s unfair to request I help, act like they want me to be close to him and then put this type of insane restriction. Am I wrong for telling them I won’t help if this is their behavior?

Submitted January 03, 2023 at 09:35PM by ayyytal https://ift.tt/IwkeCRO