Parenting comes with feelings of protectiveness, certain boundaries and rules that adults set for their kids and for other people around their children. For mother-of-two Rebecca Deurlein, a line was crossed when her in-laws went off the radar with her kids while Rebecca and her husband were on vacation. Check out the situation below and share what you think or would have done.
Rebecca’s situation is even more extreme when comparing how each set of grandparents interact with the kids. The Insider essayist writes that each pair has a different style when it comes to watching the kids, a responsibility they share when Rebecca and her husband travel each year. When discussing her in-laws, Rebecca says there is a lot to be desired, to the point she won’t leave her kids with them again.
One mother won’t leave her in-laws alone with her kids after they disappeared with them for two days
My husband's parents disappeared with my kids for 2 days while we were on vacation. We never left them again. https://t.co/Dip9Ik8FCz
— Lillian M Billingsley (@LillianMBillin1) November 1, 2023
Each year, Rebecca and her husband go on vacation. This year’s destination was Cancún, Mexico, with the goal of having “a week of sunshine and snorkeling, uninhibited by adulting.” The first day passed by without incident; it was even idyllic. Then things took a turn for the concerning the next day.
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By the following day, the couple found a phone booth and called Rebecca’s in-laws to check in on everyone. However, they received no answer. This first time, the parents wrote it off as a matter of everyone being outside to play. This reasoning felt less certain when they called later that day and received similar results that, at the time, they tried dismissing as “strange.”
Day three yielded similar results, plus a hefty dose of panic as they continued calling their house phone. Finally, Rebecca’s husband suggested calling her in-laws in Pittsburgh. At first, she didn’t think much of this plan but they tried. Sure enough, her husband got an answer.
The in-laws had traveled a great distance with the kids
Apparently, Rebecca’s in-laws had trekked 340 miles in six hours from her home to their own because her mother-in-law was experiencing eye troubles and wanted to see her own optometrist. This, in Rebecca’s view, was the last straw after a series of smaller incidents adding up, including “dressing our 5-year-old outdoorsy daughter in outrageous, frilly dresses and feeding our 3-year-old son sugar so he would grow tall.”
In addition to being left in the dark, worrying what had happened to their children, Rebecca was concerned about “Our kids’ stability in their own home with their own things” and her promise to the kids that they would not miss school or soccer practice; she feels this “didn’t even cross their minds.”
Was this the right choice?
