Sunday 29 September 2019

My daughter seems jealous/angry about the time I spend taking care of my grandkids.


I have three kids. My two oldest are adults and my youngest is seventeen. My oldest has two children, ages four and two months. My oldest daughter is struggling financially. She needs help almost every month, sometimes it's big like help with rent, sometimes it is just having me buy formula or giving her a twenty for gas. My two days off I have the grandkids so my daughter can work. She cannot afford day care. I work around 60+ hours a week though it fluctuates alot.My youngest daughter is being weirdly (imo) angry about this. She has a full and active social life and her own car and is not even home that often while the kids are over. I recently encouraged her to quit her job because while it was fine if she worked five days a week during the summer, they didn't cut her hours back now that school was back in session. She's a senior in high school and I said three days a week was the max. I didn't make her, it was something we discussed and agreed it was too much and they refused to cut down her hours. She paid for her car herself and all summer she contributed to her own insurance. Her main worry about quitting was whether or not she'd still be able to keep her car without an income. I told her school was her main job and I would pay the insurance and give her gas money. Which I have. We supply all the usual money for clothes, going out to eat or movies or whatever she needs.Every penny I give her older sister she gets angry about. We do not have a lot of money and helping her sister and paying for the insurance takes all our extra but she hasn't gone without anything. We give her a twenty to pick up dinner or a movie with her friends all the time. I know there is frustration at the loss of financial freedom, having to ask mom and dad for every dollar, but we hardly ever say no.At first this manifested as anger at her sister. Comments like, "she shouldn't have had a baby she can't afford". Which she's not wrong but the kid is already here. All we can do is try to work it out. I didn't reprimand her for this as I felt her feelings were valid even though illogical. But now her resentment has spread to the kids. Anything I buy for the grandkids gets snarky comments. She complains about them all the time. She wouldn't even hold the baby for two minutes so I could pee saying it wasn't her problem. She was an amazing aunt to the four year old, taking her to the park, buying her art supplies out of her own money so they could paint together. Just above and beyond without anyone ever asking her to. But since the baby and my oldest's financial problems she ignores her or is mean. My granddaughter worships her and it breaks her little heart.I don't know what to do. I don't know where to draw the lines between what is appropriate behavior. I feel guilty about it from both ends but I don't know what I can change. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2m5I9gh

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