hi, so I have a close friend who I’ve somewhat become default childcare for to her 4 year old son. she’s a single parent (like me) but doesn’t have much family support or support from her child’s dad.
although my child’s dad is also a POS, I’m very fortunate that my family are involved in helping me raise my son so he’s often with my parents or siblings so I can have a break.
anyway, this week for instance my son is staying with my brother so I’m child free. obviously my friend knows this as I had told her last week. she’s already asked me to babysit her son for her twice, both evenings so I wouldn’t really have to do much per se as her son will be sleeping but obviously means I can’t make plans myself. technically I am free but not in the sense of I’ve planned to do nothing, more so I just hadn’t decided what I wanted to do yet.
am I being selfish for not wanting to? & how do I communicate this nicely I’m worried she will be annoyed at me because one of the nights she asked me to babysit is for seeing a family member who’s really ill so I feel like there’s an added emotional burden that I’m feeling. it’s not that I don’t want to help her I do, and when my son is home I host lots of play dates, dinners together and her boy has sleepovers at ours maybe once every month or two. I just selfishly want this week to myself but am prepared to be told I’m being unreasonable as I don’t want to jeopardise the friendship.