To think that my mil should have been prepared to babysit. in an emergency

[ReallyTired]

My MIL lives 1 mile away. Last night my husband had a car accident. He was in the middle of nowhere and it was quite late in the evening. The car was completely and utterly undrivable. My husband was about three miles from home. My MIL wanted to watch some gardening programme.

My husband phoned me at 8pm asking for me to pick him up. I asked my MIL if she could babysit my six year old son and got the reply, that my husband should walk or take the bus.

In the end I just put my son into the car which I felt was not ideal.

a) I did not know how badly his father was hurt.
b) DH should have had my full attention.
c) I think that my MIL should care about her son.

I am really pissed off because she is prepared to baby sit for my sil. Its not possible to give notice that you need a baby sitter when your husband in a car accident.

Luckily there was only broken glass and no one was badly hurt. However my son did not get to bed until 11pm and was half asleep at school today.

The car is a write off though

Jeeez. Does the woman not get the whole 'helping family out in an emergency' thing?

I hope your husband is ok now.

yanbu but could you have dropped him there instead ?

She refused point blank to babysit my son at her house as well.

What did your dh have to say about your MIL's supreme act of selfishness?

YANBU to expect her to help out in an emergency.

But I don't really think 8pm is that late to take your 6yo out to get him, so can see that she might have wondered why on earth you wouldn't do it. (How come it took till 11pm to get him home if it was only 3 miles away?)

Hope your dh is OK, btw

What a cow!

But, BecauseImWorthIt, until she went to pick up her dh, she had no idea how badly he was hurt. Would you really like to take your 6 year old child along to the scene of an accident when you don't know what they are going to see? (even a small cut on the head can look extremely scary to a child).

MIL sounds a bit selfish.

was she not even worried about her own son?

(and I guess they had to wait at the scene to get it cleared up before they could go home)

gardening programme

Don't understand MIL not caring about her son being in an accident and thinking itsfine for him to get a bus. He could have been in shock or something. I would have expected she would take more interest in her own child.

Gardening program was obviously really important

what a cow, how could she nothelp out.
Hope next time she ask for something you tell her to get lost

Miao - her dh had called her, so presumably she would have ascertained the state of his injuries?

Sorry, wasn't trying to be unsupportive, just trying to see it from MIL's perspective (although think MIL sounds very selfish and think the OP should be taking this up with her DH)

what a cow, that's just pathetic. glad your DH wasn't injured badly. some people need a good shake, if they can't even help out in an emergency.

No YANBU - it's disgraceful that she wasn't prepared to help her family in an emergency. What does your dh make of all this.

I'm not saying this is the case with you, but in my experience, the less you ask of people, the more likely they are to help out. Personaly, I would never ask another living soul to help me if I was able to do it myself but I still think people should give help if they are asked.

Ewww, she sounds toxic.