Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I hope your Easter was better than mine...

I really didn't think we could top Christmas (J's brother threatening to punch him in the face) - but - we did! I am not sure how the family that travels 6 - 8 hours with a toddler is somehow always in the wrong - but - we are!

This trip got exciting when MIL lectured us about co-sleeping with Jack, how "it's wrong!" (said several times) and we "can do whatever we want with our child" (ya don't say) but she "says what she THINKS!"

I took deep breaths .. and blew it off. Oh, and this was after she threw a mini-tantrum because we went and got a pizza Saturday night because THERE WAS NO FOOD AND WE WERE STARVING ... a pizza that we brought back for everybody (along with a meatball hoagie that I cut up for Jack who, um, also needed to eat because he's a TODDLER.) We found out she was mad because she had wanted to cook a roast. Or so she told DH's brother. Except ... there was no roast. Hmmmm....

We had Easter brunch Sunday (instead of Easter dinner) and J's brother texted him that we were totally selfish and "that's EFFED!" that we changed the plans to brunch from dinner and he wasn't coming!

Except we didn't change the plans. We were informed of the change by MIL Friday night when we arrived in town. We could have cared LESS when or where we ate on Easter. But ... we're the villains, so it musta been our evil doing.

Earlier Easter morning MIL stormed out of the kitchen with a bowl of Kashi and locked herself in her bedroom for 3 hours because of something DH said, I can't even remember what.

Monday morning (MIL's birthday .... oops) she started on Jack. First she said it was FINE for him to play with the table pad "go ahead" in sugary fake voice and then "OK .. no. NO. NO!!" and then "OK ... go ahead." When I (nicely) said, "if you tell him no, don't then tell him yes, it will confuse him," I got:

"You have to tell him no sometimes!"

"Yes, that's fine, but if you tell him no, then yes, you'll confuse him and make him cry."

"Well sometimes he's gonna cry!"

"Right, but we don't need to MAKE him cry by confusing him."

"Well, OK, that's right, that's a good way to get back at me (huh?) but I only told him to go ahead because of that LOOK on your face!"

Funny ... she hadn't even looked up at me so I'm not sure how she saw my face.

Well ... that was it. I was shaking mad ... went in the bedroom and packed ... took Jack outside and then told FIL I didn't feel well (true) and wasn't going to eat breakfast (that she was making) and we were going to take a walk.

When I got back - she was gone, and never came back to say goodbye.

And the kicker!!!!! J ..... is mad ..... at ME!

Ta DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

(Qualifiers: MIL is old. And batty. I could've been the bigger person and ignored her. And sat and ate breakfast. Especially given that it was her birthday. But I had a human reaction and got angry. This is not new behavior on her part but I have ignored it in the past. But when it got personal with my baby... I got really ticked. I did not say anything rude. I just took a walk to cool off and blew off the scrambled eggs because I could not sit at the table with her at that point. But in acknowledging her nastiness AT ALL (you're not allowed to do that) I am very, very evil.)

Ugh. I don't ever want to go back. I really don't.

2 comments:

Leslie said...

people will see and hear what they want, despite reality, they'll get over it and if they don't then they are not worth the effort.

Mommy D said...

Never apologize or give in when it comes to your baby.... My MIL is the devil, I'm convinced, and we have't spoken since she threw a tantrum about never getting to babysit my children... Mind you, evil MIL is on very serious medication that she takes because she has an addiction and the meds make her fall asleep in the middle of conversations! She said that I was selfish and was trying to keep her from her grandchildren and I pissed her off by agreeing with her that yes, I was keeping her grandchildren from her because she was a trainwreck.

You and only you know what is best for your child. Don't ever feel bad for defending your parenting style. Kuddos to you and tell the hubs to get over it :)