I'm really confused by my mum's behaviour regarding my DD.
Both she and my dad have guilt-tripped me for years about having a child (or rather, giving them a grandchild). All the "so and so has a GC, I WISH WE HAD ONE, when are you having one, it would be so nice, I don't suppose we'll EVER get a GC [sigh]" etc. My older brother is single and won't ever have kids so it was down to me. Anyway in our own time we finally had a DD last year.
We live at the other end of the country to both sets of GPs so I try really really hard to keep them in touch with my DD. My MIL laps it up and proudly displays everything I send, makes a real fuss of DD when she sees her etc. My own parents just behave weirdly - my mum will come down to 'help me' but then makes a huge deal of how she doesn't feel confident enough to deal with DD on her own, and it doesn't matter how much I reassure her she just goes on and on in an endless fashion. If DD cries then my mum will throw some kind of episode "oh it must be me! I changed her nappy last I must have done it wrong!"... it's really hard managing my mother's emotions along with trying to deal with my DD, and it's quite incredible how my mum always manages to turn it round to being about her. My dad comes down and sits reading, largely ignoring DD (though he is generally ignorant anyway). My mum also makes big points about how she will never really know DD as we live so far away, every time she sees her (which is every few weeks) she'll say "oh I bet she's forgotten me by now". She says she'll never be able to teach her to read/write/swim/whatever as she'll never spend enough time with her. But their behaviour makes me less inclined to take her to see them IYKWIM (there are other things they do that I won't go into)
Anyway at Xmas I sent a large framed photo of DD as a surprise present - it was one my mum said she liked so I had it blown up. I also sent a thank you card for her presents with a little hand and footprint in it. When we went up the other weekend I couldn't see either, I asked if she'd got the card and she just said "Yes I forgot to tell you" but it wasn't up anywhere even though it had only arrived the previous day. Then I found the photo in the spare bedroom that nobody goes in except us! There are no photos of DD anywhere in their house yet they have random pictures from The Range on display and photos of other people so it's not like they don't have room.
DH is really offended and says I shouldn't bother putting myself out in future. I'm inclined to agree as it doesn't seem to be appreciated.
I know this sounds petty but the photo thing has really hurt me/us.