to think this is bloody insensitive?

[Newmummytobe79]

My MIL grabs the local paper and tells me she must show me this article ...

Cute animal story?
Heart warming Christmas story?
Picture of a family member?

No, an article about a woman who went through a very traumatic birth, which was very similar to mine ... but the baby died.

I didn't know what to say and felt like bursting into tears.

My baby is still very young and I hate thinking about the awful time we had.

I'm used to her obsession with older people dying, graphic details about her friends illnesses etc but I just don't understand why I HAD to read that one.

Am I being over emotional or was that just damn odd?

I know what I'd have said, but I won't say it because I don't want to upset you even more - your MiL sounds totally insensitive!

YANBU, odd odd odd! how on earth did she think you would react to that?? Even with a straight forward birth like mine 2 years ago, i still cant read stories about little ones not making it, it is too upsetting. MILs are a strange race, mine showed me wedding pictures of my dh and his first wife when we announced our engagement.

Please try not to think on it too much, the mum in the story will be well supported and you have your babys first xmas to concentrate on. {fsmile]

perhaps she was trying to say how lucky you were, badly

meant to send you

YANBU, - that is really weird of her.

Some people are gruesomely fascinated and get a sort of vicarious thrill out of reading the gory details of someone else's life. They then enjoy even more showing it to someone else and watching them react emotionally too.

Who knows what she was thinking when she showed it to you, - maybe nothing more than 'newmummy will like this, - its like what happened to her'.

I think you would be within your rights to challenge her on it, - calmly say 'MIL, I was really upset when you showed me that article. It made me think about the difficult time I had. I was wondering why you wanted me to see it?'

She will stammer out some 'I didn't mean to upset you' nonsense (translation: I get a subconscious kick out of making you react emotionally) and then you can say 'In future, could you keep stories like this to yourself? I don't find them very interesting'.