Step daughter and helping grandkids
My step daughter is a single mom to 2 kids (ages 3 and 4) and has another on the way in April. My husband and I don't agree on financially helping her. We take the kids once a week overnight and sometimes on the weekend. In my opinion, she doesn't do enough to support her kids. She works for my husband and doesn't work all of her hours. If it was any other employee, I'm sure she would have been fired by now. She quit for 2 months around June because she was depressed. But, she went back to the same job working for my husband. She doesn't make a lot of money, which allows her to get government assistance for daycare. She has a cosmotology license and can make a great living by doing hair and she's very good at it. But, she just doesn't want to. In my opinion, she needs to do what is needed to financially raise her kids. I feel like she is always getting bailed out. She has a company car to drive and now she needs an SUV to hold 3 kids. Her grandparents are very wealthy and bought her a trailer to live in, but now she will need a house. I may seem cold, but I don't feel like she learns any lessons by being bailed out all of the time..
I feel bad for the kids, but if we continue to help bail her out, then she won't know how to budget or work harder to support her kids. The help that we do give is to give her a break at least one overnight a week. And, we are going to be paying for a private school for the kids and I'm not sure that we can afford it when they get to high school. My husband wants to help the kids as much as possible so that he can break the cycle of disfunction in the family.
@RLKC2019
This sounds like a very challenging situation that you are in. I can understand how you are feeling like you are simply encouraging her current behavior by bailing her out and I can also understand the stress of wanting to help those children out. It sounds like you both are doing a lot to try to help her with her children. It sounds like she should get some help for her depression and anything else that might be preventing her from doing what she needs for those babies. I can see where you are coming from. If you stop helping her, maybe she might make moves to finally get herself together or maybe she might just try to garner support from other people. It is a frustrating situation all around. Thank you for sharing with us.