Friday, May 8, 2015

Nosy Rosy

I work outside of the home one morning per week.  My sister-in-law and my mother-in-law come to my home to babysit.  My elderly mother-in-law is very loving, but has antiquated ideas of childcare and horrible judgement in general.  My sister-in-law is stable, steady, trustworthy and has worked in daycare for years.  I've made it clear that sis-in-law is solely accountable for my son's care, but to spare my mother-in-law's feelings we've let her believe that she is the primary care-taker.  

Well, my sister-in-law and I had a falling out.  She refused to babysit for me until the matter was cleared up and there were no more hard feelings.  That left me without a trusted babysitter, but mother-in-law was totally expecting to sit for me alone.  Well, we were able to have an uncle watch the baby once since it was his day off.  We sold her on the idea that he had been wanting to take a turn.  I was confident that the matter with my sister-in-law could be smoothed over relatively quickly, so I didn't want to come clean and alienate another family member.  

But, then I had to appear for jury duty and my sister-in-law was still refusing to speak to me.  I was careful not to let anyone know about jury duty lest my mom-in-law offer to babysit.  I got another relative to babysit and my jury service only lasted for a single morning.

Well, my sister-in-law announced that she was ready for my apology.  So, I met with her and we patched things up and ended the conversation visiting about life.  She asked how jury duty had been for me, since her husband had appeared for jury duty on the same morning.  He and I had seen each other, but were separated for different trials.  The question seemed like innocent conversation, until the follow-up question was "Who is babysitting for you when you work next week?"  She was volunteering in part, but also fishing to find out who had watched my son during jury duty.  I just asked her to babysit and didn't give up any more information.

The next day, my mother-in-law asked how my jury duty had gone.  I said, "Fine."  But I was angry that my sister-in-law had obviously been talking to her mother--probably about our fight and our reconciliation for her to know about my very recent business of jury duty.  She asked another question or two, but I kept answering with single words.  She was running out of innocent questions, but wasn't ready to give up looking for information.  So, she asked, "What was your juror number?"

Please explain to me what would be of interest to someone after jury duty was completed what my juror number had been?  How desperate was she for information?  And why not just ask "who watched my grandson while you were at jury duty?"  They're determined to find out--without appearing nosy.  I'm determined not to tell.

Not sure how long this peace will last...