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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be be miffed at dh regarding ils

415 replies

NameChangedJustInCase · 10/04/2012 20:31

ok, Iv gone back to the name change in case iabu. This is not about bashing my ILS or DH. I get on perfectly well with them, they are lovely.

I joined mumsnet when i first became pregnant (so just over a year ago) and after reading a few threads on here, i decided to have a big conversation with dh about what was and what was not acceptable to do when baby finally got here ie, birth and just after. I said that if possible i would want my sister and him to be my birth partner but i did not want ANY visitors in the hospital other than the two of them, which he said was alright (he wanted to have his mum and other family members come to the hospital but i said i would not be comfortable with that, he wasn't that happy but accepted it was my decision ) i also made very very clear that i did not want any family to visit for the first few days of being out of hospital, i wanted to slob about in my dressing gown with my boobs out comfortably trying to get breastfeeding established, trying to bond as a family with our new baby, resting when baby was resting. I didn't want to be running back and forth from the bedroom feeding dd, i explained all my reasons why i didn't want family there and made it very clear to him how uncomfortable it would make me feel. we argued a bit about it, he couldn't see why i would be ok for my dsis to be there and not his mum, because it was his baby as well ect but in the end he agreed that he would tell them no visitors for a few days til we got settled.

All good. Anyway, a couple of weeks later after an extremely long and traumatic labour i wake up to hear that dh had spoke to mil and told here that she (and the rest of the family) could come over. he told me that they would either be there that day (of me giving birth) or the next day as they were all excited and couldn't wait to celebrate and meet dd. i was upset, exhausted and defeated so i told him hed really let me down by doing this behind my back (whilst i was sleeping) but just went along with it. I had to go home, deal with this tiny new little person, tidy the house (i know i should have just left it but i really cant do that) when i just wanted to take things at my own pace.

I Know that dh loves me and he didn't do it maliciously or anything (he just got caught up and excited) but I still cant get it out of my mind. i have brought it up with him since but he says (quite rightly) that there is nothing we can do about it now,so i need to just let it go. aibu to still be seething about this months later and actually get the urge to slap him in the face when i think about how vulnerable i felt at the time? AM I????

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 06:21

I would be happy if my grown son supported his wife to the hilt even if that meant me not seeing a grandchild for a while, yes. I would be proud of a DS who took agreements made with his wife seriously and respected her wishes. Once married, my DS (assuming he marries) will have a wife to think of first, baby too, with me a far distant third if I'm in the picture at all. His job if and when he ever has a baby will be to look after the wife and baby, not me or my feelings. I am a grown up and I do not need pandering to, nor would I see DS supporting a wife in this way as being 'not allowed to make decisions'. Decisions for DS after he is married will be joint decisions with his wife. I would assume the wife's mother and family would get the first look in at the baby because there would be a closer bond between a daughter and mother than a DIL and me. I would not take any of it personally. In the immediate aftermath of a delivery it is all about the new mother, not about the grandmothers.

I would be very happy to send food, do grocery shopping, make life smoother in practical ways for everyone concerned if that was asked of me. But I would not descend uninvited by the DIL herself into her home.

I haven't misread the OP. I quoted it in a recent post. Here is is again. The OP said 'i wake up to hear that dh had spoke to mil and told her that she (and the rest of the family) could come over. he told me that they would either be there that day (of me giving birth) or the next day as they were all excited and couldn't wait to celebrate and meet dd.'
We don't know if there was pressure by the ILs or if the DH had just decided to overrule his wife and issue an invitation. Either way he is (1) spineless or (2) inconsiderate and thinks his wishes matter more than hers.

TooManyOddSocks · 11/04/2012 06:23

We don't know if there was pressure by the ILs
Exactly! We don't know! Except you seem to.
Honestly.

HillyWallaby · 11/04/2012 06:30

I understand that you feel angry that he went against your agreement, but frankly I am AMAZED he agreed to it in the first place. You sound controlling and a bit of a stress-head. You've had a baby that is all, you are not on your death-bed ! Close family will be excited and delighted. Don't allow them to totally smother you, by all means, but to keep them at arm's length for days on end is just mean and controlling. It's not just your baby you know.

I wonder if you'll remember this in years to come, when you are having a little moan that his parents don't jump at every chance to babysit when you want them to? It's a two way street, this family lark. Wink

SodoffBaldrick · 11/04/2012 06:38

Yes, all this 'birth can be traumatic', 'no-one can prepare you for it'...

Um, we know! This is Mumsnet...! Grin

We're all of speaking from experience here. Those saying YABU have also been through it. Hardly anyone has a simple, straight-forward uneventful birth, do they? Well, they're a tiny minority, at least.

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 06:42

I think what is going on with the OP is that on the whole he is a good H and father and the ILs are on the whole lovely, but there are niggling feelings here that she can't square with the overall picture.

The visiting thing is one that left her feeling defeated and pressured at a time when she herself said she felt vulnerable and it has been so hard for her to let the hurt go that she posted here about it. The thing with breastfeeding in front of them is ongoing it appears, and it continues to annoy her.

It is not all wonderful despite what she says in between describing the elements of a real problem with her DH.

The ILs themselves could set their DS straight about the breastfeeding if they had any sense that anyone was going out of their way to avoid offending them, if they really were so lovely. Assuming NameChanged goes to another room to breastfeed when they visit, do they not notice? If they notice, do they think it is strange? Do they think NameChanged is just shy or do they expect her to go to another room in her own house to feed the baby? The baby is a few months old now so I am assuming they have visited a few times, perhaps enough times to say 'don't mind us dear, there's no need to get up and go elsewhere to feed the baby'..

I would be inclined to sit the MIL down if I were NameChangedJustInCase, and ask her point blank about the breastfeeding, or maybe even tell her that she intended to do it in her presence and that she hoped no-one would mind.

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 06:54

TooMany -- if there wasn't pressure by the ILs then it was all the DH's fault and shame on him. If there wasn't pressure from the ILs they at least should have thought to check with the DIL first and should really have wondered if the DH was out of his mind inviting them over immediately after his wife had had a long labour and difficult delivery. Rude, inconsiderate and moronic fits the bill.

SodOffBaldrick -- yes we have all had the experience, but apparently you have neither read nor taken seriously the OP's experience or wishes here. She herself stated that she had not wanted visitors either in the hospital or afterwards for a few days at home. She herself said that her labour and delivery were long and difficult. It doesn't really matter what your deliveries were like or how you felt about visitors afterwards. All that matters is how she felt, and what she felt was defeated, upset and exhausted. The question of being reasonable or unreasonable doesn't really apply to how a new mother feels. She felt what she felt. She had a right to her feelings just as you did to yours whatever they were, or to feel not really up to welcoming visitors just as you felt fine about it, if that is how you were after giving birth. If you think she should have felt or done as you did, yabu yourself.

TooManyOddSocks · 11/04/2012 07:03

There is the magic word if. I just don't think it is fair to label the ILs moronic selfish, insensitive and squeamish wahaen all the OP has said is that they are lovely.
I am sure you will great when your DS has a baby, but just for one minute imagine the AIBU from your DIL "AIBU that my MIL hasn't visited her new grandchild because she won't accept the invite from her DS, instead she expects me to phone her and have a half hour phonecall reassuring her that I am OK for visits. I don't want to phone, all I want to do is establish bfin and gaze at my new DC. Why can't she accept the invitation from my dh?"

SodoffBaldrick · 11/04/2012 07:11

The OP made all these decisions before the birth. So, not based on a traumatic birth experience at all.

Plus, by her own admission, her decision was reached by little else besides reading a few threads on here...

xmyboys · 11/04/2012 07:15

Yes

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 07:16

It was nevertheless her decision. She had a right to make it no matter what it was based on, and she had the agreement of her DH, or so she thought.

Are you saying someone needs impeccable reasons to have one preference over another? Or prior experience to go on?

In the case of a new mother, every single aspect of what you go through will be new territory, yet mothers decide to breastfeed or bottlefeed, use cloth or disposable nappies, co-sleep or put baby in a cot, use GF methods or some other guru or none at all -- are those decisions suspect because they are made because someone read something on MN or felt it would be right for them before the baby arrived?

ApocalypseCheeseToastie · 11/04/2012 07:21

yabu, you sound like a pain in the arse tbh.

SodoffBaldrick · 11/04/2012 07:24

Hardly.

The OP has 'lovely' in-laws. She gets on well with them.

However she made a decision before the birth which is still having repercussions now. She had her DH agree to something he clearly wasn't happy agreeing to. I still maintain that he probably didn't ever tell his parents that they weren't welcome after the birth, and so when they were exited to meet the new grandchild he relented.

For a huge segment of people, the birth of a new baby is a happy event, that family take joy from sharing in. The in-laws, being lovely people, probably wanted to be a part of that.

The bottom line is that the OP is still seething over something she really needs to find a way to get over, for everyone's sake, not least her own.

Perhaps a change in perspective in this might help. The idea that people were wanting to share in their happy event, and come together might just be the way to do that. The idea that the DH and in-laws are/were trying to undermine her, usurp her, or were generally being 'moronic' probably isn't going to help this.

The whole breastfeeding malarky is a whole other issue and I agree the DH is being unreasonable there.

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 07:25

TooMany -- I would hope that I could establish whether I was welcome or not in the space of a few minutes and not spend half an hour putting out feelers. I would also hope that imaginary DIL and I would have sat down and discussed things together beforehand. DS is great but he is a knucklehead at times and I would not trust him altogether to relay messages to me or from me. I think a MIL should really take the trouble to sit down and find out how the DIL feels beforehand because in the immediate aftermath of delivery putting your foot in it can have worse repercussions than at other times, plus I would hate to think I had come between DS and his future wife in any way, or caused any sort of rift. When you are a MIL you have to put the interests of the relationship of your child and his or her spouse first, and your own desire to see the baby or whatever should come second.

seeker · 11/04/2012 07:29

"and putting the ILs ahead of his own little family at worst."

Last time I checked, your parents were part of your family........

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 07:33

'I still maintain that he probably didn't ever tell his parents that they weren't welcome after the birth, and so when they were exited to meet the new grandchild he relented.'

And it is my opinion that he should have told them, and if he didn't then shame on him. Whether he wanted to agree with her or not, she felt they had an agreement and he should have respected that. Even afterwards, while she was lying there in the hospital appalled at what had happened, he could have called them back and said sorry, OP isn't really feeling up to it after all, once he knew her reaction to the idea of a visit within two days of giving birth. She could have done it herself but she shouldn't have had to.

And I still think that people who invite themselves (or accept the invitation of a DS at face value despite knowing the delivery was traumatic, whichever way it was being equally inconsiderate and selfish in my books) they could at least have had the decency to give an exact day and time -- would it have killed them to say Tuesday after three for instance? But no, they would be there 'tomorrow or the next day'.

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 07:34

Seeker, when you get married you start your own family. Your spouse comes first. IMO.

hairytale · 11/04/2012 07:41

Yanbu. Not at all. Especially after a traumatic birth. Your body, your baby, your choice.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 11/04/2012 07:45

Math - you are projecting hilariously here. Just because your own marriage/relationship with inlaws is awful doesn't mean that is the situation for the OP.

OP - YABU to have been so controlling in the first place, and so selfish and unkind to your DH.
He hasn't behaved brilliantly, but you put him in a horrid position. I think you owe him an apology.

And whoever said that they felt obliged to make a cake 2 days post birth because the ILs were coming, you only have your own bonkers behaviour to blame for that!

seeker · 11/04/2012 07:46

"Seeker, when you get married you start your own family. Your spouse comes first. IMO."

Funny how this only ever seems to apply to men. Women are allowed to maintain relationships with their family of origin, men are expected to cut all ties. Weird.

nooka · 11/04/2012 07:47

Your body fair enough. Your baby? No, the baby is not anyone's possession, but a shared responsibility of both parents.

I think that the dh fucked up on this one, but I can see why because it is very unusual for immediate family (and the parents and siblings of both new parents are immediate family in my book) not to visit in the first few days. One thing's for sure having a baby really really tests communication skills. Te OP and her dh need to get better at saying how they really feel. In this case the dh should have said how much it mattered to him for his family to meet the new baby, and the OP needed to remind her dh that she really didn't want anyone so soon and not gone along with it (although I can totally understand why she didn't).

exoticfruits · 11/04/2012 07:49

She was so attached to her family that the sister was at the actual birth (did Dh really want this?)and yet his can't even pop into the hospital afterwards-and she did decide this before the traumatic birth.
I doubt he really wanted his SIL at such an intimate moment and he clearly does want his parents to visit.
Men are supposed to be foundlings, seeker they are not supposed to come with the inconvenience of loving families!

exoticfruits · 11/04/2012 07:53

I hope that OP didn't have a DS or she has got all this to come! (if she has a DD she has a good chance of being in the inner magic circle).

IKilledIgglePiggle · 11/04/2012 07:59

Math, you are one crazy lady.

I hope that my DSs when grown men can live balanced lives that include me and DH and not be dictated to by their wives. Also, it's lovely watching family arrive with gifts and proudly cuddling their grandchild, niece and so on........ circle of life etc etc.

igggi · 11/04/2012 10:06

Oh come off it you can arrive with gifts on day 3 or 4 without being mentally scarred.

SodoffBaldrick · 11/04/2012 10:09

Yes, but only if you're DH's family. OP's family was there for the crowning.

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