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About five months ago, my wife's cousin husband passed away. Now she is dealing with raising a child by herself. We know she struggles because her job does not pay well enough for her to afford a babysitter after paying all her monthly expenses. Of course, her coworker offered to babysit her daughter for several months (5 days a week for free) until she finds an affordable permanent babysitter. This include picking her daughter from the home and dropping off her to school in the morning and picking her up after school in the afternoon.
We recently heard "chatter" from her coworker that the cousin's daughter has become too much burden after 4 months of babysitting. They are planning for their vacation for this summer but unsure because they do not want to leave her daughter alone. At one point, the coworker confronted her and gave her a lists of babysitting facilities near her home to contact. But suddenly, the cousin was very distant and defensive. I guess she knew of a place at a cost $300 a week or $1200 a month.
We told her coworker that she should set a deadline and stop helping her out. We know clearly that she is being use by her. The very least, they would like to give her few more weeks to try and find a permanent babysitter. After all, they are doing this out of kindness. Furthermore, they both want to harbor any bad feelings between them since they work together, which is understandable.
After hearing all this come out, the rest of family were very disappointed that way she is treating her coworker. At the same time, we don't really want to "butt in" her business since we are not in the position to help her out with her babysitting situation. We told the cousin to move to an affordable rental place so she could afford many more things (short of mentioning her babysitting situation), but she admit, she likes where they are living now (even though it cost more).
We don't like to make judgement of what she is doing wrong. We know how tough her situations especially being a single mom. So we are sympathetic to her. At the same time, it's weird to have her in our house and not discussed her situation openly. So I guess, should we say something to her or not. Do we just ignore it and hope she solve it herself. What should we do or don't do?
We recently heard "chatter" from her coworker that the cousin's daughter has become too much burden after 4 months of babysitting. They are planning for their vacation for this summer but unsure because they do not want to leave her daughter alone. At one point, the coworker confronted her and gave her a lists of babysitting facilities near her home to contact. But suddenly, the cousin was very distant and defensive. I guess she knew of a place at a cost $300 a week or $1200 a month.
We told her coworker that she should set a deadline and stop helping her out. We know clearly that she is being use by her. The very least, they would like to give her few more weeks to try and find a permanent babysitter. After all, they are doing this out of kindness. Furthermore, they both want to harbor any bad feelings between them since they work together, which is understandable.
After hearing all this come out, the rest of family were very disappointed that way she is treating her coworker. At the same time, we don't really want to "butt in" her business since we are not in the position to help her out with her babysitting situation. We told the cousin to move to an affordable rental place so she could afford many more things (short of mentioning her babysitting situation), but she admit, she likes where they are living now (even though it cost more).
We don't like to make judgement of what she is doing wrong. We know how tough her situations especially being a single mom. So we are sympathetic to her. At the same time, it's weird to have her in our house and not discussed her situation openly. So I guess, should we say something to her or not. Do we just ignore it and hope she solve it herself. What should we do or don't do?
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