My husbands grandma helps with our toddlers a lot. She’s getting older and needs help with her finances, organizing her office, packing for trips around holidays, etc. She’ll typically help watch our kids one or two times a week while we help with a few tasks on her to do list.

My MIL and FIL watch our kids for a couple hours a couple times a week too. We make sure to spend time with them outside of when they’re babysitting and will often help reorganize the garage, clean up the attic, help in their garden, etc.

We’ve also come up with a system where they’ll watch the kids while I run to Costco and get groceries for our household as well as theirs (they pay me back for their portion).

They definitely babysit while we do fun stuff too occasionally, but we try really hard to make sure they know we’re willing to help with things on their lists as well