My son, Michael, his wife, Linda, and their three children live about thirty minutes away from me. Michael is constantly popping by with the kids on Sunday afternoons. Ice cream and pool time at Grandma’s has become a norm. Recently, Michael and Linda asked me to babysit the kids for a weekend while they visit Linda’s ill mother. It made sense because I knew that Linda’s mother was battling cancer, and the thought of having my three grandkids run around her home just made me anxious for her part. She needed peace and time to recover from her chemotherapy — Michael told me that she recently started it. Anyway, it seemed like a simple request, right? I agree. That was until Linda came over two days before they were scheduled to leave for their visit., She popped in during her lunch break to hand me a list of rules. “These are important to Mike and me,” Linda said, leaving the envelope with the instructions on the table. Rules to look after my grandchildren? At first, I wasn’t angry because I knew all parents do things differently. But as I sat down with a cup of tea and read through them, I was utterly stunned. The first rule was a real kicker — no touching their fridge for myself. The refrigerator was off-limits for me, and I was instructed to take my own food.

The second rule required me to perform a daily “wet” cleaning marathon of their two-story house. Who still had the time or energy to mop every day? Did they think I was Cinderella? And then, the third rule was the real head-scratcher — I was instructed to shower twice a day to prevent the kids from catching “infections” from me.