To want my parents to go home...

[OublietteBravo]

I probably am really. They very kindly came down to help out with childcare, and the DC have loved having them around.

On the other hand I find it very difficult to be around them as they have a very different view on the world to me. I'm sick of being told that their life is so much harder than mine (they mention interest rates being 15% and going to night school whilst working and bringing up 4 children on one income, but I'm not allowed to mention my dad's free university education or the fact that I've spent almost 5 years working full time whilst re-training or just how expensive is these days). I'm sick of being told how unfair it was that my mother couldn't retire at 60 (I will still be working when I'm her age). I'm sick of being told how awful immigration is and how wonderful UKIP are. I'm sick of being told what a dreadful mother I am because I work.

Sorry about that - I feel much better for having a bit of a rant. I'd better go and make another cup of tea and hear about how terrible I am because I'm sending the DC to private school and thus not supporting my local state school (which has been in and out of special measures for several years)...

How is going to private school not supporting the state school? Surely if anything it is relieving the state of the "burden" of another child; you're still paying into the system, just not using it.

Chin up. They have helped with childcare and your dc love them. They are part of another generation and sound very similar to my DPs.

You are not a bad mum. And they do love you!!!

Keep changing the subject. Favourite books, neighbours, holiday plans, the kids' shoes etc etc.

Good luck!

You had me at UKIP.

Tell them to go home! :)

You can change plans you know, say that you have put them out enough etc etc, and insist that you'll be fine.

Have you got other people who can help, and I mean really help!

Hand them their tea, smile sweetly, and reassure them you know you will burn in parent Hell with all the other bad parents, but you're ok with it!

Not everyone of that generation is a racist.

I'd ask them to leave too.

I don't get the state school logic either - apparently if the wealthier families all sent their children to the school it would magically become outstanding (out of DD's lower school class of 30 children, only 2 went private for middle school - I can't see how the performance of the school would be improved by such a small proportion of children going there rather than elsewhere).

They are going tomorrow morning (I booked and paid for their train tickets since they were helping me out). I've tried to make their stay pleasant. I booked a restaurant and paid for us all to go out as a family on Father's Day. I've prepared all the evening meals taking into account their very unadventurous tastes (nothing 'foreign' - so no pasta, rice, nothing spicy, etc.) and the fact that they like to eat really early (couldn't manage 5pm as I wasn't back from work - surely 6pm isn't 'late'?!).

I feel your pain.... My dm can't seem to accept that I am not her, I don't live my life exactly the way she did wants me to and it is very wearing. The constant passive aggressive comments, the rhetoric of how everybody did everything better in her day... The sheer negativity of it..... My advice see them in small manageable chunks and see a bit less of them..