Is it unreasonable to ask a single mother to babysit for you? DP's sister and us had an arrangement for the first few months where we would take it in turns to go out and babysit the boys (my DS now 21 months, her DS 17months). The boys loved it and it seemed to work very well. However a few months ago we attended a wedding and MIL knew SIL was babysitting and put all this barriers in the way - basically meaning DP had to drink drive early in the am to collect DS as SIL had to go over to MIl's early. Also we couldn't drop DS off untill evening rather than afternoon, as saturday was the only day these two women (neither of whom work) could go clothes shopping.
MIl refuses to babysit our DS although does so regularly for SIL - who is in a new relationship so I would imagine is out quite a bit. In fact at one stage MIL was telling us not to babysit for SIL as she was going out to much - now however to stop us from being able to go out/ whatever the hell it is she is trying to achieve she happily sits for our nephew.
When DP was round at SIl recently MIl phoned and heard DS in the background and started going off on one - SIL had to cut in that actually DP was there too. When DS had his accident MIL seemed to care. She was, dare I say it supportive and I was amazed. Now however she is back to meddling in our lives. She feels it unfair that SIL should be stuck with two children on her own. She is a SAHM - both me and DP work full time. I knew before I started there would be no support from her but now I don't understand why she is trying to stop a fair (IMO) understanding from being so with her daughter???
Rant over I am sorry. Do you think it is too much to ask for SIL to be on her own for a night? BTW this is not a regular occurance, we go out rarely - twice since April.