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No. Not at all. My thinking is that they don't have the money to pay for a sitter. It's not his sister's fault and he seems to be taking it out on her.
Thank you everyone for your responses. I also had never heard of anyone expecting that you also pay for the babysitter when you give a gift like that.
It was really out of character for the older brother to act like that. I wondered if he meant it as a joke and sent it via text/email and his sister misunderstood and took it seriously. If that is the case then the joke is on him as she never gave him another expensive birthday gift in the following years.
Another possibility is he had gotten used to his wife's wealthy parents giving them tickets to things and then offering to babysit (obviously for free to spend time with their grandchild) or maybe paying for a babysitter. I really don't know if they did that but I could easily picture it happening. But, something that your wealthy in-laws may (or may not do) is completely different from expecting your broke college student little sister to do it.
It really is not a big deal, but it came up in conversation recently and I wanted to get other opinions on it. I think that it was probably meant as a joke but the sister really thought (both then and now) that he meant it seriously.
It was really out of character for the older brother to act like that. I wondered if he meant it as a joke and sent it via text/email and his sister misunderstood and took it seriously.
That must be it!
I love "dry" humor in conversation but I'm easily fooled by it in text because there are no non-verbal cues. I can't tell if it's "tongue in cheek" if I can't see your cheek or a person's eyes for that matter.
When I bought my son & DIL a gift card to a popular restaurant a few years ago, I did drop a hint or two (in person) that if they didn't have anyone in mind for babysitting when they wanted to use it that I would probably be available.
I was a young mom once too & I know I always preferred my parents over the dad's parents for babysitting, so I didn't want to come off as though there were strings attached. If I would have written it; I probably wouldn't have tried to be funny, because without emojis I'm not good at being funny in text.
If you give a gift such as concert tickets, to a couple, are you also expected to pay for their babysitter so they can attend the concert? This situation recently came up with some younger friends and I am curious about what other people think.
A college student that I know splurged to give her older brother and his wife (who both have full time jobs) two tickets to a concert that he wanted to attended. Normally she would give a small gift, or a home made gift, to her brother for his birthday but spent at least four times what she would normally spent on his gift to buy two concert tickets. And, while he was (mostly) appreciative of the gift, he informed her that "it was not polite to buy tickets for a night out unless you also include enough money to pay for a babysitter."
Frankly, I had never heard of an etiquette rule like that. So, was she in the wrong or was he just making that up or is this something new or what?
Thank you for any input.
Oops, maybe this should be in Non-romantic relationships instead, but I was wondering what people who needed to pay for baby sitters (parents) thought about this issue.
It might have been nice if the gifter offered to babysit when presenting the tickets (unless she lived far away or was going too) but no she shouldn't be expected to pay for the babysitter or be one. The brother is out of line since if he paid for the tickets he would have to find a babysitter. Perhaps he was trying to guilt his sister into sitting for them.
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