Ah so Summer is fast approaching. School will be out in a Month. Guess what this means for all of us StepParents? Babysitting Duty! Yay!

Last Summer was a fiasco that almost ended my marriage. We'd just moved and very next week, the pseudo-SS9 was sprung on me for 11 days without my knowledge. (Not going to rehash all of that but basically since I work from home, I'm expected to be babysitter without question).

This Summer, the Wildebeest is having a new kid, due early August. She's already indicated needing a 'break' and she's mentioned how her new husband works 6 days a week so she needs a "rest". All this means is she's going to shove pseudo off on anyone who'll take him for as long as she can. Anticipating this, I found Summer Camp programs here that last a week and cost roughly $140 and I told DH to look into it if he's thinking of bringing SS here this Summer. He said "Good idea" but then nothing more was done so probably too late now. (We live 3.5hrs from SS now so we'd have to sign him up early as Out of State student). DH is in training for a big promotion so he does not have flexibility in his schedule anymore until October.

I've been traveling a lot for work past 2 months and I have intense training coming up from late June to early October so I can pass my PMP. My Meetings can last an hour and I normally have 4 per week unless a project is pending -then it's endless. I still have my 50+ hours work week plus adding studying, launching my own Site, and finally, training for Spartan Race. I am not available to babysit and don't need the stress.

Now of course he seems to think watching the boy is nothing since he's 9 but he disregards the feeding frenzy the boy goes on, leaving trails of food and debris in his wake. He's always into something he shouldn't be- was here 2 weeks ago and hooked himself in lip with fishing hook well after he was told to put the rod away. DH wasn't here and boy was downstairs yelling bloody murder and I was on a call and my whole office heard it. I had to get off call and reschedule. Grrrr. Always something so he definitely needs watching. He can't be in house alone. Plus he doesn't like to shower without being told over and over or clean up after himself. We have no other play area in the townhouse or parking lot so he'll be stuck in bedroom all day as he refuses to ride a bike or do anything remotely active. I can't give up my main space where my office is set up. It was pure hell last Summer and any other times, like March, when he shows up for a week at a time then "baby, I'm working few hours this morning, can you keep an eye on him". }:) :sick: . I will not go through it again.

So do I tell him in advance (since I get no warnings) that "I will not be babysitting this Summer BECAUSE... " OR simply give no explanation because honestly I don't have to babysit anyone else's kids for no other reason except I don't want to. I'm thinking that's reason enough.

What do you tell your DH's when they want you to watch their kids and you can't or don't want to?