When my mom refused to watch my daughter, saying, “We’re not your nannies,” I smiled and replied, “You’re right. And I’m not your bank.” I’d been the son who paid their mortgage — and that’s when the panic began.

When Ethan Miles drove his wife and baby daughter to his parents’ house that Saturday morning, he expected warmth—or at least civility. After all, he’d been helping them pay their mortgage for nearly three years. His father had lost his job at sixty, and his mother, Diane, had never worked outside the home. Ethan, an engineer in Seattle, had stepped in quietly. No one had asked; he’d just known they needed it.

But today wasn’t about money—it was about trust. Ethan and his wife, Laura, had been invited to a wedding out of town. They needed someone to watch one-year-old Sophie for two days. His parents seemed like the obvious choice.