Don't get me wrong, my mother-in-law is a lovely woman. I know I'm much more lucky than many. She's just a bit ... full on. Here are a few of the bonkers things that she has done since dd was born, four months ago.
- She phones me every day. Every day. To ask how dd is. I've managed to get her to stop doing it very early in the morning. She gets up at six.
- She "organised" all the millions of (gratefully received) baby presents by taking them all out of their little gift bags and wrapping paper bundles, thus separating each one from its carefully preserved tag/label/card. When I asked her, through gritted teeth, if she remembered who had given us what, she just looked at me blankly. Everyone just got a generic, "thank you for your gift" letter.
- When the baby's birth was announced in the paper, I thought it would be nice to keep a copy of the paper, so that dd could see it when she's older, and read the news of the day... Next time I opened the paper to have a look at it, there was a little square hole where her birth announcement had been... MIL had carefully cut it out, so we could keep the tiny square of paper!
- Months before the baby was born, she announced her intention to stage a big christening party for her. She was offering to pay for it, so very generous and a nice opportunity for the family to meet the baby. BUT, she insisted that she wanted to have it while her DS was still on paternity leave, ie within two weeks of the birth! Maybe some people bounce back quickly, but this was my first baby and I really didn't know if I'd be up for a party two weeks after childbirth. When I told her this, she responded with an incredulous, "Why not?" This woman had two children. As it turned out, I was barely mobile two weeks after the birth. I put my foot down and we had a christening a month after the baby was born. It was an exhausting experience and I was in discomfort throughout it.
- She gives the baby a lot of baby talk, including shouting "Coo! Coo!" at her. I have not the words.
- She's already planning what dd will wear on Christmas day!
Am I being unreasonable? What does your MIL do?