Is your mother-in-law crazy too?

[gail734]

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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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!
   
4. 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.
   
5. She gives the baby a lot of baby talk, including shouting "Coo! Coo!" at her. I have not the words.
   
6. She's already planning what dd will wear on Christmas day!
   

Am I being unreasonable? What does your MIL do?

[TheCunnyFuntWearingAPoppy]

My MIL is mostly lovely, but she has a tendancy to order everyone around. She still tells her sons what to do and they are 17, 20, 23 (my DP) and 25. The 2 eldest left home long ago.

She cleans far too much, and whenever she comes to our house she 'helps' do stuff, puts all DDs toys away even if it's the middle of the day and she still wants to play with them or she'll unload the dishwasher and put loads of stuff in the wrong place so I can't find it! I mean really, who stores baking trays in the bloody oven? On one memorable occasion she put our cutlery away, I opened the cutlery drawer, and thought 'Wtf? Where are the forks?', for some reason known only to herself she'd put them in the (already full) knife slot with the knives, leaving the fork slot completely empty! This still baffles me. When I was heavily pregnant she came round and cleaned our house while I was out, I came back to find all my ornaments rearranged and some had moved rooms!

Tbh she does dote on her grandchildren and she is lovely, she's just too bossy and obsessed with cleanliness and tidyness.

[blueraincoat]

pickledfanjocat I am actually crying with laughter, DP came over all concerned asking me what was wrong!

[ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs]

My MIL is a bit odd at times, although I love her dearly.

Her finest moment was just before our wedding- friends and neighbours had been handing gifts to her, and I asked her to keep a tally of who gave what. I didn't know her very well at this stage. One day we were across, and she's handing over wedding presents- "So and so gave you this, so-and-so gave you this- oh, and wee Mrs X down the road gave you a lovely set of towels . I'm needing towels, so I've just kept them, but make sure you write her a thank you!" Eh??

She doesn't phone very often, but when she does she always asks if we've had "our tea", and then what we had/ are going to have. Always provokes a giggle from the person not on the phone when we hear the other rhyming off the domestic menu!

[cleeve6]

CunnyFunt, I store my baking trays in the oven, where else would you put them...?

[PickledFanjoCat]

My mum does that platypus.

Seriously, I'm bloody scarred now!

[thebody]

Thecunnyfunt!!! I keep my baking trays in the oven!! Is that wrong? Love this thread.

My mil was absolutely fantastic, my mother is nutty as squirrel poo but sweet.

Op your mil sounds a tad excitable but well meaning.

[thebody]

And why perry ffs!!! So funny pickled.

[gail734]

OMG, PickledFanjo, can't believe you know the pet name of your FIL's willy! Reminds me of another anecdote of bonkersness: when I was pregnant, MIL phoned me up and said she wasn't "telling me what to do.." BUT... then went on to make a name suggestion for the unborn child. The odd thing was, she didn't suggest her own mother's name, but the name of her husband's mother, her own, dead mother-in-law. She has a slightly unusual relationship with her husband - I would call it "sooky" (I'm Scottish, I mean she sucks up to him, like a teenager with a crush!) Also, her mother-in-law was French Canadian - the name that she was proposing was Genevieve. Not an ugly name by any means, but pretty unusual in Scotland! I decided not to name my first child after a woman I'd never met.

[gail734]

Oh, and CunnyFunt - cleaning another woman's house is surely grounds for excusable murder? She might as well have come in and said, "You are a hopeless slattern, I can't have my DS living in such squalor." That's what I heard when, two weeks after I'd given birth, my visiting MIL said, "Give me a scrubbing brush and I'll clean that kitchen floor for you. " Just trying to be helpful, I know!!!

[LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance]

Encourage the baby-talk, though. It's good for phonological awareness and early language development.

[foslady]

My ex MIL suggested I named dd after exh's 2 grandmas (no thought to my side of the family )......didn't bother, I know one was lovely, never met the other, but Ellamina????? - even exh said it sounded like a witches cat!

[SoleSource]

Yes she was.

[CaliforniaLeaving]

Mine was Bonkers last time I saw her, that was a long time ago. I doubt she has changed. She alternated between being a total bitch and a wonderful person.
She cleaned my house from top to bottom and had fresh flowers on the coffee table when I got home after having Ds 1. It was lovely. Then she tried to get rid of me and raise him herself, that didn't go down well.