I need some family advice, please!?

Ok, my husband and I have a 1 year old daughter and we live in Ohio. All my side of the family lives in South America and my hubby has both his parents in Indiana (2 1/2 hs away from us) and his two sisters in Ohio. Our girl is my in-laws 12th grandchild. My MIL hasn't worked in decades and her only occupation are her ';clubs'; (bridge, gourmet,etc) She has babisat for my sisters in law A LOT. Even stayed in town for days/weeks at a time when they were on business trips or vacation with their husbands. Well, she has only babaysat for us ONCE since our baby was born and last friday we asked her if she could babisit in October for a week so we can go on a vacation( we haven't even gone on ONE date since our baby was born) and she said: ';We are going to Ireland'; We asked for the same in July and she said'; we are going to Alaska'; not even asking WHEN in Oct or July. she's not gonna be gone for the whole month! She hadn't seen our daughter in over 2 months until they came up last friday. They didn't even come for her 1st b-day party!!!! We made a pretty big party which was catered, had games etc and they ';had scheduled a doctor's appt THAT Friday...ooops'; All they did was send a check for $20 on an envelope. They have a house that costs 1/2 a millon dollars. They are wealthy people, but that's all they give their grandkids for their birthdays.They stayed in OUR home for the weekend and I asked her if she could change Isabella's diaper so I could finish the laundry and she said ';no, I changed it yesterday';. I thought she was joking, but she wasn't. She just refused. She also refused to babysit for her oldest daughter (who has eight kids) this week. Her middle daughter (who has 3 kids) has a daycare center and lives 30 min away from us. I work part time in the evenings and one or 2 afternoons a week. I take her to her house once or twice a week (the afternoons that I have to work only) and she charges us for the babysitting. She charges us the SAME amount she charges the other kids, no discounts to family members whatsoever. We take her there ecause she is still family and we don't feel comfortable taking her to a daycare center where we don't know the people who run it. Please tell me: is this weird, or what? Do any of you go through the same situation? is there any piece of advice you can give me? Should I say something? Should I stay quiet? This is all really hurting my husband and I and is going to hurt our daughter if we don't do something. I'm soooo mad and hurt at the same time. I don't know, I thought family members (especially direct relatives) supposed to help each other, not neglect each other and charge for everything!!!!! My sister would never charge me for watching my daughter and viceversa. All of my American friends are very surprised that this is going on. we have helped babisit and my hubby has fixed their computers, fixed...everything because their husbands are not handy men, ebven done their taxes for free!. We have never charged them a DIME for anything. I have made birthday cakes (I'm a pastry chef) for free plus given them B-day gifts and they act like this? Has this ever happened to you? Is this normal?





Our daughter is so beautiful and friendly! Everybody stops to look at her and play with her at the mall and I have had several people telling me they wish they could be her grandparents. This is so unfair. I guess life is unfair after all.I need some family advice, please!?
Yes, it does seem unfair but you just need to take matters into your own hands and don't count on them. Change your way of thinking. It's not the family's ';duty'; to care for your daughter, it's yours. If they help, great, if not learn to do without.





This is something that's not popular but if at all possible, work from home or quit working altogether. Be with your daughter. Raise her, don't let other people do it. She will be in school soon enough and you can go back to work. You will miss out on valuable time with her and the time goes by fast.





While being a stay at home mom, get to know other moms. You can co-op (taking turns watching each other's kids.). That's the best way for all of you. And you will be glad you got those years with your daughter.I need some family advice, please!?
In-laws are, by law, crazy. They are never like normal people. That, and they may just not like you or your husband very much. It's not unheard of.
Unforutnately, they obviously don't approve of you. A lot of American's are prejuidiced against latinos, I think more so than blacks or other races in this day and age. They may legitamately have trips planned during those months if they are that wealthy. I would try to get some answers from your husbad and ask your sisters inlaw to babysit.