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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel infuriated by my in laws

181 replies

SofiaG123 · 14/04/2017 09:41

Backstory is that my inlaws don't see eye to eye with me or how I parent. I operate a timeout system with DD(3) which is used calmly and I will tell her to go for a timeout for anything she does that she shouldn't have done. I try to make these a positive thing rather than a negative. A chance for her to think about the situation and what she's done, followed by a quick chat with me, a cuddle and then she carries on with her day.

When she was younger, there were countless tuts, rolls of the eyes etc from my inlaws when I told her to go for a timeout. They question my husband and I constantly. Said things like "you forget you were children once" etc etc. Low & behold we have a very well behaved 3 year old. Of course she has her moments but on the whole, she is really great. They tell us it's down to luck and not down to our parenting. I'm sure they are right to a degree but I'm sure that how we've raised her will have impacted this substantially.

We now have a nearly one year old also. She is different in nature to our first. A little more stubborn. Take something away from her and she'll get stroppy (perfectly normal at that age I'd have thought). The rest of the time, shes relaxed and chilled out.

According to MIL & FIL, she's going to be trouble. Our techniques won't work with her. They said their friend looked at a picture of her and said she's like the spawn of the devil (all said in jest). They are waiting for her to misbehave, almost desperate for her to misbehave just to prove their point that I'm not a good mother. That's how I feel. They think I'm hard on my daughter. I'm genuinely not hard on her at all, I never raise my voice at her. My approach is calm. I do not, however, allow the behaviours that my PIL would allow, that they deem "just kids being kids". For example, once at their house, she was lying on the floor, dragging herself along the wooden floor boards. They were in hysterics about this and thought I was unreasonable for asking her to stand up. Silly little things like that.

I just hate the way they are willing my youngest on to be disobedient. I feel frustrated that they're saying I won't be able to parent her effectively. Am I being out of order here. Not going to lie, my maternal instinct is making me feel majorly protective over my youngest here. She's 11 months old - give her a break and let her grow up without tarring her with this negative brush.

Sorry, needed to vent!

OP posts:
SofiaG123 · 14/04/2017 15:39

My biggest issue with the cigarettes and the alcohol is that, they're so quick to pass judgement constantly on how I parent. They are so disapproving of how I do things, yet they laugh and joke about these things that happened when their children were little. It's hypocritical to criticise me the way they do and then have a right old laugh and a joke about those things which I could so easily criticise right back at them. I am finding it such a horrible situation, in particular watching them go on about how my youngest is going to be a tearaway. My protective instinct seems to come to the fore and I just want to fight her corner since she's too young to fight her own. Quite frankly, it disgusts me that they have these opinions about their grandchild.

OP posts:
Hadjab · 14/04/2017 15:44

YANBU, there's nothing wrong with setting boundaries. Ignore your in-laws, and the comments on here stating otherwise - they are your kids, you know best.

metalmum15 · 14/04/2017 16:34

Quite how anyone can tell an 11 month old is going to be a 'tearaway ' is beyond me. Are they psychic? In which case, do they happen to know tomorrow nights lottery numbers?

They sound almost gleeful about the thought of you having a difficult child. (I'm not saying your baby is difficult, just they seem to like the idea of it.) Maybe there's a jealousy issue involved somewhere? You seem to be a fairly calm patient parent and perhaps your MIL struggled with that?

SofiaG123 · 14/04/2017 17:11

Thanks metalmum. I think there is quite possibly a lot of truth in your post.

OP posts:
Giddyaunt18 · 14/04/2017 17:58

OP just keep on keeping on. So long as a child is shown unconditional love and carrying out the consequences when boundaries are crossed, sounds like great parenting to me. There will always be people in life and on MN that disagree and have a more liberal approach but you have to be true to yourself.It gets a bit easier as the children get older as far as GPs are concerned.

purplecoathanger · 14/04/2017 17:58

I wouldn't ignore the comments. I would tell them the subject is not up for discussion. Be assertive but polite and firm. If you stand up to bullies, invariably they back down. Get DH to also use this approach so you are 100% united.

If you cannot resolve this issue to your satisfaction go for no contact or low contact.

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