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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Being treated differently then sister in law

315 replies

Lancashiregal10 · 01/06/2014 11:49

Basically sister in law has a four year old and we have a 10 month old. Sister in law is a single parent (she adopted as a single parent).
A bit of background at the time of adopting me and DH thought we could not have children and would find it hard to be approved as adopters as I have uncontrolled epilepsy (been through process and told this). SIL then suddenly decides she wants to adopt as a single parent (fine, no issue with this). When she was approved she tells my DH that "she will finally have something that we don't have". Now she has always been like this so we are a bit disgusted but we both shrug it off.
She has always had her mum and dad (my DH parents) pay for everything and they practically bring up her child for her. (Again if she and inlaws are ok with this its their issue, we can afford stuff she can't and its none of our business how her child is brought up).
Anyway fast forward to me and DH having child that we never though we could (cue major paddies and childish from SIL but that is another story).
But now we are finding her little boy is being treated so different then ours. They never have time to spend with ours (apart from one afternoon a week which they look after and we are very gratefull for)
If we arrange to do something with them at weekend SIL butts in and they end up bein with her (apparently we can't do stuff togther as SIL hates me and does not want to spend time with me)
We have to provide all milk, food, nappies for that one half day a week yet They have SILs kid fours days and she provides nothing.
They are always buying nephew toys but none our little boy. The rare times we are all together inlaws give all attention to nephew and intoned our little boy.
Last year when DS was six months we had arranged to go away with them for a week to the Peak District but due to SIL kicking up fuss that she could not cope, they only came for a night however they go away with SIL a least four weeks a year (all paid for by them) and we are never invited as again SIL hates me (My crime was marring her brother and even worse then that proving to be fertile after all)
Until now we did not give a toss but now we are starting to see the differences between inlaws treatment of our little boy and nephews already.
Maybe we are just being anal. DH has taked to his mum and dad but its a case of SIL needs them and we don't. Which is true we don't but we want our little boy to feel as close to them as nephew does and not feel left out
Tell me please if being unreasonable

OP posts:
Kewcumber · 02/06/2014 21:33

people do give up their babies because they do love them, and they want what they think is the best for them

This isn't the 1950's.

Genuinely relinquished children are vanishingly rare these days. Sometimes birth parents when faced with the inevitability that their child is being removed will consent because they have the strength to recognise that this is best for their child.

Government quote from their Action Plan for tackling delay

Adoption today is not remotely as straightforward as when I was a child. Babies are now rarely
relinquished by their mothers. Adoption now is much more likely to follow a period of neglect or
abuse and time in care. That makes adoption today more complicated and more challenging.

maddening · 02/06/2014 21:39

If I was your dh I would have one final conversation with my parents - explain how their behaviour hurts me and that my relationship with them was never how much I needed them to pay for me or work for me or what I could get out of them but simply that I wanted to spend time with them and share parts of my life with them and give them a relationship with one of their grandchildren - that I was the one who never demanded or made them choose or tried to destroy their other relationships out of malice and that right now the damage they have done leaves me in a position that I will have to remove myself from in order to minimise the hurt to my family and I - that I won't make them choose but that if they can't have a relationship with them as much as my sibling does that I really will uave to leave it for my own sake.

I don't see why the gps would have to choose - it is the sil driving the wedge - there is no reason that this little boy could not share his gp with his cousin - and he could grow up with a loving relationship with his little cousin.

PhaedraIsMyName · 02/06/2014 21:41

Katie the ils have OP's child once a week already. They are not overlooking him.

Once he is older who knows what will happen? Even if ils continue to "favour" as you would have it the OP and her husband can explain to their child that x doesn't have a daddy or 4 grandparents. ils love you both but you have your other grandparents to visit / have fun with, x doesn't.

RazzleDazzleEm · 02/06/2014 22:02

I Don't think op is coming back but I would like to remind some posters, that op has un controlled eplipsey, life isn't a bed of roses for her either, and she did have trouble conceiving, was turned down for adoption and her baby to her is a huge blessing and very special coming from that angle.

RazzleDazzleEm · 02/06/2014 22:05

Agree maddening its so sad and the one who will loose out are the children, esp the little adopted boy.

slithytove · 02/06/2014 23:26

I hope OP comes back.

It is in the best interests of the children to encourage a loving cousinly/brotherly relationship, and I can't see that happening with SILS attitude or the GP's divisiveness, no matter how well intentioned. (And after all, that is only conjecture on this thread, not fact)

Assuming this wee boy does have SN, needs additional emotional support, and SIL for whatever reason can't cope without her parents - why does that mean that they can't feed their younger grandson a meal? Why does it mean they can't all go out as an extended family on weekends?

OP - when was DN adopted and at what age?
Will your DH be giving references and supporting SIL through another adoption?

PenelopeLane · 02/06/2014 23:43

I tend to agree with Phaedra etc about this. My niece gets much much more attention, time and material things from my Mum than probably all of her other 5 grandchildren combined, and always has. Thing is, my niece really needs it. For a number of reasons (sister with PND and a host of other issues) my niece's primary attachment may even have been with my mum.

It's never occurred to me to resent it though because if my niece didn't get this attention and stuff from my mum, she may get it from no-one. My DCs have me and my husband to provide them with those things.

I've spoken to mum about it and it really isn't a favoritism thing. It's my mum - who loves all her grandkids - putting her resources where they're most needed.

I do wonder if there is a similar situation here.

YouAreMyFavouriteWasteOfTime · 03/06/2014 07:52

IME parents give most to the (adult) child who needs it more. the more capable you are relative to a sibling, the more they help the sibling.

and surely that's how it should be?

Aeroflotgirl · 03/06/2014 08:07

You are, not if the chikdren are then treated differently, that is not on. There seems to be in this case, I am sure when op ds gets older he will notice that his cousin gets more attention and living than him from grandparents. I agree Razzle, op has had her fair share of problems too.

YouAreMyFavouriteWasteOfTime · 03/06/2014 08:28

Aero - when op ds gets older he will notice that his cousin gets more attention and living than him from grandparents

yes, and that he has two parents and at some point he will find out his cousin is adopted.

tobiasfunke · 03/06/2014 09:07

In my extended family the parents give the most attention to the one who shouts the loudest, who is the most difficult, who demands the most. The quiet ones are expected to get on with it.
Favouritism is so corrosive in a family.
My DS when he was 4 told us one day that Granny and Granddad loved his cousin but why didn't they love him. It broke my heart. We eventually told them this. They didn't care. They have spent their entire lives running around after DH's sibling and her demands that they can't see how warped it is.

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/06/2014 09:12

Aero - when op ds gets older he will notice that his cousin gets more attention and living than him from grandparents

yes, and that he has two parents and at some point he will find out his cousin is adopted.

And he presumably will notice he has another set of grandparents too.

I'm not convinced grandchildren fret about this but if he does OP can easily explain why his cousin gets more attention. Getting more attention does not necessarily mean the ils love (I assume "living" is a typo in the quote) one more than the other.

RazzleDazzleEm · 03/06/2014 09:38

I'm not convinced grandchildren fret about this but if he does OP can easily explain why his cousin gets more attention. Getting more attention does not necessarily mean the ils love (I assume "living" is a typo in the quote) one more than the other

Not sure op could convince away the fact that when the two cousins are in the same room together ops son gets ignored whilst the other gets all the attention....

Op its toxic, get out of it.

RazzleDazzleEm · 03/06/2014 09:40

I'm not convinced grandchildren fret about this

nO we can see that phedra....you have chosen to ingore every single post where people have given you real life examples of how corrosive favourtism is.

BTW I really dont like your nick name it reminds me of Peaches Geldofs motherless son. ]

pianodoodle · 03/06/2014 09:40

It sounds like SIL has narcissistic personality disorder. If you look it up, her behaviour might strike a chord with some of the symptoms.

I'm sure it would. I've only ever had the misfortune to encounter one person like this in my life and it was awful.

And of course it sounds irrational that someone would hate you from jealousy but people like this do exist and they aren't rational!

That doesn't mean they can't put on a front when they want something though.

I'd avoid as much as possible.

PenelopeLane · 03/06/2014 09:52

But as I said in my example up thread we have a grandchild who gets more attention as they need more. Adding to that, the other gcs honestly don't seem to mind one iota. They just take it all at face value.

Again, that's just my experience, but still - the other grandchildren really don't mind and it hasn't created any issues.

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/06/2014 10:06

razzle one child is a 4 year old the other is 10 months. I'd be paying more attention to child who can interact with me.

Oh and Phaedra was a girls' name for around 3000 years before being misappropriated by Peaches Geldof for a boy. I know it from Greek mythology not Hello magazine.

oldgrandmama · 03/06/2014 10:19

Hesitatingly entering the fray ... my beloved younger sister was adopted when I was five years old. She was a baby but had been horribly neglected in the private 'home' where she'd been placed after birth (this was the 1940s - and that sort of thing did, alas, go on). She was in a sad condition - malnourished, skin problems, nervy and jumpty when she came to live with us but, with the help of a wonderful GP, was nursed back to health.

These days, my parents wouldn't have got to first base in the adoption process, both being serious depressives, but to give them their due, with my tiny sister, they pulled out all the stops. I was jealous as hell and this didn't really abate until my teens, because little sister got SO much attention from my parents, relatives, friends - and quite right too, in an effort to make up for her truly horrible experiences in her first months of life.

Perhaps the OP's nephew has suffered awful things before being removed from whatever situation he was in and put up for adoption and the grandparents are going all out to make up for this as much as they can. He's four years old and who knows what ghastly memories he has and possibly also long term problems - the fact that he still needs nappies would indicate this, poor little boy.

The grandparents are obviously making a HUGE contribution towards caring for the little boy - I find this entirely laudable. But I am so sorry the OP feels her baby is being left out - sounds like I felt when everyone was concentrating on my new baby sister when I was five.

But the little adopted boy has a huge raft of problems and needs. The OP's baby has two loving parents, other loving relatives and friends and really, I'm sure the grandparents don't mean to seem indifferent to her child but it's just that at present there's a huge effort of help the little adoptive boy.

As for the sister in law, she sounds pretty awful but I agree with Randomnessesses up-thread who posits that she is possibly very jealous that you conceived, have a partner ... and she's obviously pissed off that you got her brother! What she's said to you is nasty and juvenile but be the better person and rise above it.

I think things will settle down. Your inlaws still have your baby with them once a week, which as others have pointed out, is more than many GPs do - and I wouldn't worry about lack of presents, taking nappies, food etc. All pretty unimportant in the great scheme of things. I hope you and your partner will be good aunty and uncle to the little boy - he's probably had a very sad start in life and deserves a lot of love and support, which I suspect is what motivates your inlaws.

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/06/2014 10:24

Razzle Paedra is also the name of a play by the French playwright Racine which I studied at school although he uses Phèdre. Shall I change it to that to avoid offending you?

Oddly your name reminds me of a downmarket porn magazine of the same name which the newsagent I worked for in the late 70s stocked.

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/06/2014 10:59

Oh and Razzle "Phaedra is my name" is a quotation from a song long pre-dating Peaches Geldof.

RazzleDazzleEm · 03/06/2014 11:07

oldgranma

does it have to be in equal to the extent that her baby is ignored, they cant do food for him, cant buy a toy? cant give a cuddle when in the same room?

do you honestly think this is 100% innocent or rather, showing the jealous....prone to tantrums and nasty comments sister that they prize her child over ops?

I mean really they cant even give the baby a cuddle? They cant spend any quality time with op and her husband and baby?

I dont think anyone is denying that this boy ( may - ) need extra help...

but does it really have to be totally at the expense of ops child?

RazzleDazzleEm · 03/06/2014 11:08

Good for you Pheadra but you cant deny its a rare name and has been in the media very recently in relation to the tragic death of a young mum....

Aeroflotgirl · 03/06/2014 12:34

yes but at the moment he is not, whilst he is in childhood he might find that very hard to understand, it could affect him. It is only right that the grandparents take some time for op ds as well, mabey as op ds gets older could do things together with the other grandchild. It does not help SIL atrocious behaviour.

Aeroflotgirl · 03/06/2014 12:35

And you end up in a sad situation such as Tobias funk

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/06/2014 12:37

Razzle "Phaedra" has the associations for me I've mentioned. I also know 2 (girls) called Phaedra. It's a name I've used on other forums.

I really have no idea what point you are trying to make beyond displaying your own lack of general knowledge.

Also not even the OP has suggested the ils refuse to cuddle her child. You are dramatising now.

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