Today, me and my husband took our daughter to a school open day. Because our son is only 2.5, we had decided the day would be too long for him, so had arranged for my mother (who lives nearby) to come round and look after him for the time we were out.
I should pretext this by saying every time my mother babysits/looks after our children (very infrequently), she has always been extremely demanding and we have to go to great lengths to set everything up/get everything out and prepared. She doesn’t even want to find food in our cupboards or fridge, everything has to be laid out beforehand and prepared by ourselves. She also refuses to assemble the pram for our youngest, so we have to do this as well. In the past she has brought the pram home, covered in mud and dragged it all over the floor and carpets.
For this visit, she had insisted that the pram be set up in order to take our son out. Overnight, we had a lot of rain and this morning it was very muddy and wet everywhere. We therefore decided it wasn’t the best weather for the pram to be used, so left it in the cupboard. On arriving, she demanded that we set up the pram, and when I refused, started screaming abuse at me, accusing me of being ungrateful, of disrespecting her wishes. I explained my reasons for not setting it up and said that she could take our son for a walk in his wellies instead, but she continued to shout at me (all in the presence of my children, who by now we’re getting upset). She then threatened to leave unless I set the pram up, at which point I welcomed her to leave and said we’d manage with the children on our own. Only when she realised her threats were futile, did she stop screaming at me, but continued to accuse me of being selfish and ungrateful. By now we were late leaving, our son was very upset, and my mother just stormed off into the next room and left me to comfort my children.
Perhaps I’m overplaying an insignificant situation, but I’m 35 weeks pregnant and found the whole incident deeply upsetting. Was I unreasonable for refusing my mum’s request?