to be sick to death of MIL's reaction to DS's name?

[AberdeenAngus]

DS has a normal, everyday, run of the mill, boys name. We picked it because it's a varient of my dad's name. He died while I was pregnant. :(

The response of everyone else to his name was an 'ahh, that's nice, like your dad' kind of response. MIL's response was 'ahh, that's nice, like the [insert name of obscure breed of farmyard animal]. I put that down to her being a bit batty and just ignored it, but for the last 3 years she has been obsessed with this connection between his name and this farmyard animal. Every item of clothing she buys him, every toy, every book has it on it/in it. It's not even the breed that has his name as that's too obscure and she can't find anything, so she gets the bog standard breed instead. A dress up costume came in the post today.

AIBU to be sick of this and to wonder what the fuck is going on in her head?

noiwontstoptalking I had a similar problem with dolls. I solved the problem by never displaying them anywhere. Displayed things I did like and people just caught on. I also tell people what I want for my birthday, in case they need a hint or help.

I too would have made the connection to sheep I don't think Jacob sheep are that obscure, no more than say erm Aberdeen angus cattle, which you do seem to have heard of! I probably would have also made the connection between James and Jacob.

Where she said oh lovely like the sheep did you go er what? Or no Mil as in James like my dad? If you did neither of these maybe she genuinely thinks you understand the connection and you appreciate that your DS shares the name and thinks it's cute. I know two people one's name translates as baby seal in Irish his daughters most prized cuddly when she was three was a baby seal, she used to confuse every one by asking for her cuddly and her dad by the name. One a little lad by the name of Angus, who when their friends went to Scotland got brought back several toys with said cattle on. Ok maybe she's over egged it but maybe she's just thinking it's cute!

YANBU
Just tell her that sheep scare him so you don't want any pics of them in the house
Or when she mentions again just say ok, don't react at all and she might get the message
How annoying though it's not even about she not wanting to see the connection with your dad, it's more like she doesn't she the child for who he is, she just sees a sheep!

That is a very tenuous link indeed (and I too know a lot about sheep!). She is officially being weird. No wonder you're pissed off.

Just out of mild interest I googled Jacob sheep and there is apparently a Jacob Sheep Society. Let's hope she doesn't buy the poor lad membership.

Mackerel

Jacob is a lovely name and the Jacob breed of sheep are the oldest breed in the world, have 4 or sometimes 6 horns and are good escape artists.

Now this is not going to be helpful but my dad did a similar thing with me, the origin for sheep theme being lost in the mists of time. I am surrounded by sheep mugs, sheep place mats, sheep tablecloth, t shirt, key ring.....and a real flock of sheep.

Your MIL probably means well.

My DS is called Rory and I buy him things with lions, dinosaurs, tigers etc on, because these things say 'roar' and he's Rory. Tenuous but I can't resist. Also the dog is Leon so we get a lot of lion-themed bits to tie the two together. I don't particularly like lions but like your mil once I get an idea in my head, it's there for life.

forty I just spat coffee everywhere

op for every sheep she buys, buy her a donkey. Every single time. Start texting her little donkey facts, bombard her FB with pictures of donkeys and sheep. Every time you see her bring up donkeys.

Although she probably has until DS is 6, 7 tops before he tells her to stop it with the sheep

I dont see what the big deal is, can't see any malice in what she's doing and it's not as he and your dad have the exact same name.

Yeah, start calling her a donkey because she's someone with little imagination who is trying to be nice buying themed presents for her grandson.

Jacob is a variant of James, as in Jacobian, Jacobite. She's bloody mad. I wouldn't have thought of the sheep.

My XSIL had the same name as a potato. It's what I first thought of when I met her!

Another Granny here delirious with joy at the birth of a little boy,...wait for it another Jacob!!

Born in this year of the sheep too!!I am busy buying all sheep related cuteness that I can lay my hands on!

Luckily it is my daughter's babe and I have to mail things to a faraway land OP,so I am not your Dmil!

It is an excited Granny dreaming about the little chap thing and will stop when he develops his own interests.

Try to play nicely OP!

My XSIL had the same name as a potato. It's what I first thought of when I met her!

I'm trying to figure this out, I will be staring at the potatoes in the supermarket later, trying out the names in my head .

Maris piper?
Desiree?

Presumably Charlotte or Anya?

*Jacobean. Autocorrect was right. I can't spell, clearly.

My XSIL had the same name as a potato. It's what I first thought of when I met her!

poor girl, being called King Edward!

Full marks, Simon, it's Maris!

well I have never heard of the name Maris, and yes it very definitely has a potato association and i would therefore not use it myself. That does not mean it would be cute or funny for GP to keep on buying potato themed presents to reinforce the idea of the child being named after a spud, if they were named after a maternal grandmother instead!

they were only finding cow stuff to show off how clever they were
It was like that in my family, but also there was the feeling that it was easy for them because they didn't actually have to try and think about what I'd like or what my real interests were. There was no real thought put into presents for me.

Maris would instantly make me think of Niles' wife on Frasier - probably the potato connection is better!

PHANTOM, true, I'd put a stop to that very quickly!

The only potato type I could think of, offhand, was Rooster.
Imagine the gifts to the child ...