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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be furious with DH over party

336 replies

SilverBirchTree · 03/01/2018 10:43

Been with DH for over 4 years and currently in the middle of our first ever fight.

We have 3 month old DS and it’s been a rocky few months. Massive trouble breast feeding, and health scares with the baby including an ER visit. In the same period of time we moved house and we now live in an area that is completely new to me and 30-45 minutes drive from family.

I have been looking forward to having him baptised. I was so worried and unwell myself at the time of his birth, so missed the initial joyful ‘the baby is here’ time. I saw his baptism as the event for me to quietly celebrate my beautiful baby and how far he’s come.

My mother lives down the street from our family church. We’ve had family weddings, funerals, baptisms there for decades. Mum offered to organise the baptism then serve tea and cake at her house afterwards. Perfect.

DH said no. He wanted the baptism to take place in our new community. He made a little speech about how we’re adults and we need to throw our own events, how his parents shouldn’t have to drive so far to get to it etc. He said he’d do most of the work. I very very reluctantly agreed to have it in our new area and host our parents and siblings at our new home.

Once it was booked DH tells me that actually he needs to invite all his aunts, uncles and cousins. A week later he says that tea and cake isn’t enough- it has to be a cooked lunch. And his grandparents are too old to eat on their laps so it has to be a sit down lunch. Plastic cups are no good, we have to rent glasses etc etc etc. meanwhile he has done sweet FA to make it happen. I even had to repeatedly remind him to tell his grandparents the time.

Then at Christmas he took to bed with a migraine. The reason - he is so stressed about the party, he won’t be able to ‘help’ anymore. It’s up to me. Oh, but his mother (a whole other story) will ‘help’ instead.

I’ve spent the week beside myself with stress (made worse by Baby induced lack of sleep). I am furious that he insisted we turn down my mum’s offer to host and then left me high and dry with his family’s demands and the mental load of trying to please them all.

Today I finally cracked and accused him ruining something that was important to me. We had a full argument with raised voices and me crying. He continued to spout his views about hosting our own events like a broken record, seemingly not caring that I’m the one doing to heavy lifting to meet his directives.

He’s now off sulking and probably texting his mother about how mean I am.

AIBU? Any advice on what to do now? I’m new to arguing with a spouse and not sure what happens when neither party is willing to apologise.

OP posts:
endofthelinefinally · 04/01/2018 15:29

Silver Birch
You must, MUST, stop this awful behaviour of your MIL.
My MIL was exactly the same.
The psychological harm she did to me and my son was significant and long lasting. Dont underestimate the stress and damage your IL's actions can cause.

BashStreetKid · 04/01/2018 15:44

It came out that his whole ‘let’s have it in our community’ nonsense is due to his mother who has been pressuring him, complaining that she is hurt that she was ’excluded’ from having ‘alone time’ with the baby in his first few weeks while we stayed at my parents.

But surely any time she missed in the early days has now been compensated several times over by the hours she spends at yours since you moved? It's not as if she would have expected to spend several hours a day with the baby when she was new, even if there had been no health problems. I guess she feels it's somehow unfair that your mother had 24 hour a day access, but it sounds as if that was mostly a hell of a lot of work for your mother rather than a privilege.

Can you see if your DH can get it through to her that things have obviously evened out in terms of access to the baby and she should stop feeling hard done by?

nocampinghere · 04/01/2018 15:45

glad your dh is listening to you, he sounds ok to me fwiw. no need to "LTB" at this stage Smile

Just be clear about boundaries with the PILs
make sure your dh backs you up and you present a united front, not you against them with dh in the middle trying to keep everyone happy.

AdalindSchade · 04/01/2018 16:00

Well done, good outcome for now.

However MIL is clearly overbearing and controlling and DH is probably a helpless player in her dynamic until you open his eyes for him so moving to their neighbourhood in a house they paid for was a huge, massive mistake.
As soon as you can, sell the house and move somewhere fresh. Seriously.

PyongyangKipperbang · 04/01/2018 16:08

Why do some grandparents think they have a right to "alone time" with a new baby? The only people who get that is the parents and siblings. My friend had a Mother and MIL like this, both demanding that they have the baby over night and to themselves, on a regular basis. My friend was deemed to be completely unreasonable to say no. It blew up in a massive row with both of them when my friend found them, in her kitchen, negotiating which grandmother would have te baby which night and how often with no reference at all to friend or her DH. She lost her shit completely and pointed out that a) they had had their "alone time" with newborns when their children were babies and b) her child was not a toy for them to play dollies with (that one really hit a nerve!). They both backed off and thankfully are ok now but it took my friend saying that unless they packed in trying to treat her child as theirs she would simply not see them.

She rang me in tears several times afterwards because both women were trying to lay on the guilt and managed to spoil a lovely period in everyones life by their demands.

DartmoorDoughnut · 04/01/2018 16:14

Well done SBT (as an aside I planted one of those last month!) glad your DH now understands and is onside Wine

Coastalcommand · 04/01/2018 17:38

Could you have a blessing later at your family church, with a nice party at your mum's?

Loner1993 · 04/01/2018 17:52

My daughter is the same age and I totally understand the rage you feel when, after baby has been kept awake for 2 hours and therefore tetchy and overtired, MIL is convinced this is due to wind. Mine is also convinced that when I try and instigate nap time, if baby isn’t asleep within 30 seconds, baby isn’t tired and therefore doesn’t want to sleep. Wow. Because newborn babies are renowned for knowing themselves when they need to go to sleep. Wine of course.

GAH!

please update on how your DH gets on talking to MIL

tattyheadsmum · 04/01/2018 18:38

@Loner, my MIL does exactly the same thing. Shouts “are you tired, tattyhead”, “he doesn’t seem tired to me”, “he’s not asleep yet, tattyheadsmum”. In the next breath, she’ll be saying that her 3, DH and 2 SILs, didn’t sleep for years....no sh!t?!? Mental.

Good luck OP. Hope Sunday goes well.

Partypopper123 · 04/01/2018 18:54

Well done OP, I'm glad you got your DH told and he seems to be on board.
Very selfish behaviour from your MIL.

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 04/01/2018 21:34

And if I see a single fucking chicken nugget this baptism is going to turn into a Tarantino film.

This maybe my favourite MN quote EVER. Grin

Well done lady, I hope this weekend is actually fun after all the stress, hope you get some sleep with newborn, and let us know how it goes.

Megs4x3 · 04/01/2018 21:41

I have sons and daughters and paternal grandmothers often get barely a look-in, and for very good reason. When a woman has a baby, ther person she generally wants advice and help from is her Mum. Sometimes the daughters don't want help and advice and want to do it all their way, as is there right. It always makes me sad to hear that grandmothers see time with the baby as some sort of point-scoring exercise. And alone time with baby and his Daddy? What planet is she on? I agree that conversations need to be had and boundaries drawn. My children are very keen for us to live closer to them as we age, but there will be no 'popping in' at our convenience or dictating how the grandchildren are brought up. I've had the unhappy experience of seeing that sort of thing unfold within our extended family and it generally doesn't end prettily. Believe me, inappropriate jiggling will become much more if a woman as forceful as your MIL isn't kept in check. I hope your husband keeps to his plan of having words. And please let us know how Sunday goes, though the visual of a Tarantino film did make me smile. :-)

DPotter · 04/01/2018 21:58

And if I see a single fucking chicken nugget this baptism is going to turn into a Tarantino film.

I love your turn of phrase Silver - one of the best I've seen / heard in a while! You're shaping up to be one powerful Mamma

Groovee · 04/01/2018 22:01

Hope it all goes ok x

MayCatt · 04/01/2018 22:56

Well done OP! I hope you're relaxing with a well earnedWineGin

KayaG · 05/01/2018 05:53

MiL isn't going to give in easily now she has established this much control. She has been rumbled and she won't like it.

Your DH has to keep on top of the issue and force her to back down and adhere to your wishes. Don't let him crumble in the face of her anger.

Get the key back ASAP.

IggyAce · 05/01/2018 06:35

Love your mum. Sounds like you need a load of your mums cake idea in mini versions to give mil on her daily visits.
If mil does continue with these visits you need to say 'oh mil didn't expect you today, baby and I are off to...' and insert a baby group, do this every time.

Saffronwblue · 05/01/2018 06:55

Wow, just read the whole thread and clearly the baptism catering is the tip of a very complex iceberg which includes:
his parents basically writing the script for your whole life
you all three recovering from the trauma of ill health at the baby's arrival
issues about control and freedom and to what extent you are individuals in the marriage.
DH being hopeless under any sort of pressure - a migraine for a week over party stress? unable to do more than butter toast because his wife and child were ill?

My armchair diagnosis based on eerie similarities with my inlaws is that DH has never cut or loosened the ties with his parents in any way. He dimly sees that he should, hence his remarks about starting your own family traditions. However they have him in a strong grip of enmeshedness and he will throw you and your child to the curb any time to ensure that his parents' wishes are met.
You both have a lot of work to do. You need to lay down some boundaries and he needs to work out what adult life looks like. (hint - it does not involve going to lie down with the vapours when things get tough).
You sound like a really lovely person so I don't want to be a doomsayer but the set up with the inlaws and your DH's spinelessness rings lots of alarm bells.

SilverBirchTree · 05/01/2018 07:07

@IggyAce thanks. I’m actually thinking (once the baptism madness is behind us) having a frank conversation with MIL. I think my being too polite and too respectful of her feelings is what got me into this mess.

I’m going to say one visit during the week, at a specific time. I will have the baby fed & rested for the visit so they have the best chance at good play time and a happy baby. Then after 1 hour he is going to sleep and they are going home. No debate. He’s 3 months old, he’s not meant to party for hours.

If they want to come other times then their son can facilitate that, I am not the family’s social secretary, and I plan to do other things during parental leave, not just make them cups of tea while they overstimulate my baby.

I will say that if what they want is a good relationship with the baby then their score keeping against my parents is counterproductive. Im not going to push my parents away to give my in laws a sense of control. I’ll be distancing myself from the people causing me stress, not the people alleviating it.

If they want to share their own traditions with the baby, great. I will stand in no ones way. But this is the last time they are going to obstruct me from doing the same.

I am the ringleader of this particular circus.

Now eat this, and fuck off.Cake

OP posts:
SilverBirchTree · 05/01/2018 07:12

@IggyAce should clarify the last line was directed at PIL, not you! Lol.

OP posts:
Saffronwblue · 05/01/2018 07:12

Now eat this and fuck off.
The more it gets repeated the more it has almost a sacred religious tone to it. Any chance of getting the vicar to say it during the ceremony?

Weezol · 05/01/2018 07:22

'I baptise this child John James Now Eat This Then Fuck Off Jackson'

SilverBirchTree · 05/01/2018 07:23

@Saffron haha I’ll ask.

Or maybe translate it into Latin and put it on the family crest.

OP posts:
GinIsIn · 05/01/2018 07:27

Hoc modo manducare and fuck off.... (strangely there doesn’t appear to be a Latin translation for fuck off! Grin)

BusyBeez99 · 05/01/2018 07:33

The important bit is the baptism. Make that part special. The rest is just a party and it doesn't really matter ...... don't lose sight of the point of a baptism - it isn't just a party it's a religious commitment.

This is why we didn't go down this route not being religious.