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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be worried about MIL after vodka in DD's juice?

264 replies

libbylove · 25/10/2018 18:07

A couple of weekends ago we had Sunday lunch with my in-laws. My mother in law had some juice in a lemonade bottle that she told me she'd made herself. She gave me a glass and told me it wasn't alcoholic. I double checked this and she swore blind that it was just juice. It tasted just like juice, nothing strange about it - and it was like 11am so I didn't think any more about it.

Later on during the meal my 3.5 year old daughter needed a drink so I asked my mother in law what to give her. She said anything on the kitchen counter would do so I poured my daughter a cup of the juice and thought no more about it.

Two hours or so later my mother in law was a bottle or so deep in white wine. I was having a joke with someone and she pointed at me and accused me of being drunk. I replied that there was no way I could be drunk because I'd only been drinking the juice she made.

She then chose to reveal that this "juice" was made from 50% tropical J2O and 50% neat vodka. She'd given it to me mixed with flat lemonade, but I'd given it to my toddler as was. And I had no idea how much my daughter had drunk. My father in law said her cup was full when he cleared the table - but I'd only filled it 2/3rds full so that didn't add up. Meanwhile my mother in law's reaction was "well, you gave it to her." as if I know it had vodka in it!

The whole next day my daughter was down in the dumps, didn't eat, had a headache, was dizzy and was generally too ill to go to nursery. My husband was at work so when I told her she'd been ill all day (despite the fact she'd been up three times in the night and uncharacteristically wet herself twice the day of the juice) he alternately said it was down to her recent injections/me overreacting. I had to flat out accuse him if gaslighting me before he accepted that maybe the whole situation was not ideal.

The in-laws have previous - when DD was barely walking they took her out and got her badly burned with splinters in her feet from walking on a pier with little/no sunscreen. She nearly ended up in a burns unit, and me and my husband had to hold her down as a doctor pulled out a dozen or so large splinters.

My husband has now started arranging for my daughter to stay with them for a few days. I'm not sure what to say about this - he wants me to have the conversation with them because it's me that's unhappy, but I almost need a script or something. Do I say they can't look after her? Do I say they need to take better care? Or am I, as my husband thinks, overreacting?

OP posts:
libbylove · 25/10/2018 18:50

Oh man, I just told my husband about this post (didn't show him it) and that advice has been not to leave my daughter with them unsupervised and he's really angry. He doesn't want to have the difficult conversation needed. He did text his mum about it shortly afterwards but he started with "libbylove is unhappy that..." which further cements my fun sponge status. I think he feels backed into a corner. He's really cross. Neither of us like confrontation.

OP posts:
AnotherEmma · 25/10/2018 18:51

You have a DH problem. He is a coward.

SassyTheVampireSlayer · 25/10/2018 18:51

Blimey thought I had lost a day then and it was Friday night already...but no...it's Thursday still... Confused

Ceecee18 · 25/10/2018 18:52

To be honest, if he was refusing to be an adult and act like a parent I wouldn't trust him to look after her in case he handed her over to his parents behind your back.

SunnyCoco · 25/10/2018 18:54

This is madness

Why on earth isn’t he angry at the fact his 3 year old was drinking vodka?!
If you do leave her in the care of this woman in future and something happened, you would never forgive yourself for ignoring these enormous red flags.

sparklefarts · 25/10/2018 18:56

I just can't believe this is real because I cannot believe that either you or your DH would do anything but laugh at the idea of leaving your child with them?

You both need serious words with yourself if you leave your child with them. Like, really really serious words.

RoboticSealpup · 25/10/2018 18:59

Your "D"H is being an asshole about this. If my DH behaved like that, I wouldn't hesitate to tell him so. Are you afraid of him?

Figural · 25/10/2018 19:00

Some people can't taste alcohol at all, I'm one of them, maybe the OP is too without knowing it. I went through my uni days, seven years, without knowing it

68Anon · 25/10/2018 19:01

I'm finding it difficult to believe that your 3 and half year old was sick, you knew she had mistakenly drunk vodka yet you didn't take her to A&E or seek medical advice. You're almost as irresponsible as your mother in law.

fuzzywuzzy · 25/10/2018 19:01

Why’s your ‘d’h minimising? Does he not give a shit about your dc?

Your dc could end up seriously injured as a result of your il’s irresponsibility.

The first time they injured my dc by making her walk on a hot pier without shoes or is cream resulting in her ending up in agony in a&e would have been the last time they were given unsupervised access to my baby.

And spiking your drink would be the last fucking time I ever visited them or ate or drank anything they prepared.

You’re husbands a twat for trying to blame you and gaslight you instead of protecting his defenceless baby.

oatmilk4breakfast · 25/10/2018 19:03

Would you let a childminder who lies about putting vodka in juice look after your child? If the answer is no then that’s probably quite telling. I would be thinking twice if it were me I think

libbylove · 25/10/2018 19:04

@68anon I feel terrible about it now. Everyone around me was telling me that I was wrong/overreacting and it's hard to see through that, especially when you have self esteem issues like I do.

OP posts:
KM99 · 25/10/2018 19:04

Show your husband this post, please. Let him see he's being a spineless twat. Or maybe he'd prefer to wait until your DC ends up in hospital or with social services because of your ILs shocking behaviour?

If he persists in throwing you under the bus to avoid hurting his Mummy and Daddy then pack his bag, he can live there if he thinks it's so safe.

QueenOfCatan · 25/10/2018 19:04

Your husband is a fucking coward and I actually think he's utterly awful tbh. Your child had a hangover ffs and he downplayed that, as did his parents (and blamed you?!) Your mil spiked your drink and he sees no issue with that. Then there is the whole burning issue. And he's trying to get them time alone with her. Fuck that. As a childcarer I would actually be having words with social services if you were one of my work families because it's utterly neglectful to even consider allowing them to care for her.

thewayoftheplatypus · 25/10/2018 19:06

Your DHs role here should be to support you and do what’s best for your daughter. If my in laws had let my child burn so badly they almost ended up in the burns unit (accidentally or not) I would have immediately limited unsupervised contact. That doesn’t mean you don’t like them. That doesn’t mean you don’t want them to have a relationship with her. That means that you are doing what you need to do to keep your daughter safe- which should be both of your primary concerns as her parents.

And as PPs have said, she told you it was just juice. She told you that your child could drink anything from the side. This is not something you have done wrong, and I would be fuming if someone gave me alcohol without telling me (in fact if someone did that to me I would end up in hospital owing to a fairly dangerous drug interaction). Your not over reacting. Stand your ground

Witchend · 25/10/2018 19:07

Are you sure she wasn't teasing you?

Because I find it very hard to believe that you wouldn't have noticed a 3yos behaviour change after drinking 50%vodka. Not the next day, but very quickly on the day she drank it.
I remember when my dbro (aged10) drank a tumbler full of alcoholic homemade ginger beer. It wasn't missable. He thought he'd get away with it. 😁

Notfair2030 · 25/10/2018 19:07

So she basically spiked your d4ink with alcohol. Didn't say anything when she's saw your dd drinking it and let her feet burn so severely she was in hospital.... Yeah she really fire a on her. That's not just not thinking. The juice incident is a criminal offence and the second I just have no words for other than negligent.

Vampiratequeen · 25/10/2018 19:07

YANBU and you tell her that she will not be looking after your DD again and she can think you are as unreasonable as she wants because spiking someone's drink and trickig them into drinkig alcohol is illegal, let alone the fact that because she lied to you your DD ended up drinking it and that she is lucky you are only cutting contact with her as you could have gotten her arrested.

NoSquirrels · 25/10/2018 19:08

My husband has now started arranging for my daughter to stay with them for a few days. I'm not sure what to say about this

You’re not sure what to say to someone who drinks heavily when DC are around, thinks their mother is a “fun sponge” and would deliberate give her alcohol unknowingly, thought a young child drinking vodka in juice is “no big deal”, neglected your DC so badly she ended up in A&E and nearly a burns unit and who wants unsupervised access to the sand child...

Your boundaries are FUCKED UP. Your DH has been screwed up by his upbringing- you need to be the one holding firm here, “fun sponge” or not, and you must make him see sense.

SunnyCoco · 25/10/2018 19:09

Yes to be honest I’m quite shocked that you didn’t seek medical attention for her

Neither you nor your husband seem to take it seriously? You know alcohol is a poison right?!

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 25/10/2018 19:09

Jesus , they nearly put your DD in a burns unit and gave her a hangover

It’s a no brainer . But you have clearly married into a very tricky family

You need some headspace and step back

SoyDora · 25/10/2018 19:10

Your 3 year old drank vodka. It made her ill. She also got severe burns and splinters in your MIL’s care. Over my dead body would she be seeing her unsupervised again and that’s all there is to it.

JamPasty · 25/10/2018 19:12

Jesus fucking christ. What if you've been taking medication that interacts with alcohol? What if you'd driven? What if your daughter had died of alcohol poisoning? No unsupervised contact between PIL and DD would be the absolute fucking minimum I would respond with

famishedpotato · 25/10/2018 19:12

Call the fucking police, your mother-in-law seriously assaulted your child.

And leave your fucking awful piece of shit husband.

Fridaydreamer · 25/10/2018 19:14

After the incident with sunburn and blisters I’d refuse unsupervised contact myself.

Now another incident has happened.

DD’s safety would come first with me.

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