Name changed as possibly revealing. I'm a bit fed up and hurt by my MIL's behaviour and just want a rant really...
DH and I had our first baby a few months ago, a DD who we are, of course, madly in love with. This isn't first grandchild for MIL as my DH's sister also has a little girl, who is 1. Just to point out something I think is relevant, even if it's disappointing that it is - We live about 40 minutes away from MIL, whereas DH's sister only lives about 5 minutes away, so I appreciate due to geography she does see her other granddaughter a lot more often.
Since our little one has been born, DH and I have been irked by what we consider to be MIL playing favourites with her other granddaughter. Since our DD has been born, she's only come to see her once, which was when she was on the way back from a shopping trip away (and the town we live in happened to be on the route back home). She was here for about an hour, tops. She doesn't ask after our DD whenever we speak to her and has very little interest in how she's getting on. She constantly posts about her other granddaughter on her social media pages, shares lots of photos and historically has always written gushy statuses about what she's heard she's done today (smiled for the first time etc). My DH has been hurt that our DD hasn't even warranted the sharing of one photo, not even the first time she met her when DD was born. I tried to brush it off at the time, more so because DD was a newborn then and I had enough to think about!
Now I think this is very much a "straw that broke the camels back thing" but... Today, I noticed that my SIL shared photos of my niece meeting my DD on her social media pages. Under every single one, my MIL has commented about how cute my niece looks and not even made a passing mention of our DD. Then, under a photo of the two of them with my SIL's caption "So lovely to see (DD's name) today", MIL has actually commented "AND (OTHER GRANDDAUGHTER'S NAME)!".
This was from a good few weeks ago and I've only just seen it, so would be weird if I commented now, but I'm feeling pretty stung by it to be honest. It's entirely possible I'm being a protective mother bear about it but I just feel like this is already setting the tone for MIL blatantly playing favourites (in a way that is noticeable) for the years ahead. DH is really angry with his mother but doesn't want to say anything, as he feels that then if she makes more of a fuss and an effort that it will be insincere, which I understand. But we're still sad about it.
Anyway, rant over. Just feeling pretty disappointed and wish MIL wasn't so blatant about it. I appreciate that she probably sees our niece a lot more and that has an impact but meh :( does anyone else have a similar situation? How do you handle it if your DD/DS isn't the grandparents' favourite?!