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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think she shouldn't have stayed away with DD?

526 replies

rostronlorn · 24/04/2019 11:51

DH is working at sea so it's just me and DD 18 months at home. MIL arranged to take DD and her 2 other grandkids (4 and 7) to an adventure farm type place on Easter Saturday for an Easter Egg hunt event. There was also a petting zoo and face painting etc. I originally was going to go along with them but am 5 weeks pregnant and experiencing awful sickness. DD was bored with me unable to take her out so when MIL offered to take her anyway I said yes.

The adventure park is a 2 hours drive away. The reason she chose this and not somewhere nearer is because it is owned and run by her close friend. MIL doesn't drive and got the train. She picked up DD at 9 to catch the 9:30 train. I was told they'd be catching the 5:30 train back and DD would be back at 6. As soon as she picked DD up I went back to bed. Around 5 I get up and everything seems fine, MIO has sent pics etc. Expecting DD back in less than an hour I decide to make a start on our tea. Then about 5:45 I get a frantic text from MIL saying she'd missed the train. It was the last train of the day. She wasn't willing to ask a family member for help and claimed she didn't have any money for a taxi which I found somewhat odd. Despite feeling like shit I offered to go and pick them all up and she insisted she couldn't allow me to do that. I said it was fine etc, it didn't matter because it was my DD and she hung up.

She phones 10 minutes later and says her friend is coming to get her and they will stay the night at hers and come home first thing. I still insisted on getting DD but she said "No. Get some rest. Will have DD back by lunchtime tomorrow." I rang SIL and she seemed fine about what MIL waa doing. I couldn't pick my DD up as I didn't have the friends address. I went to bed thouroghly pissed off because I saw from the photos that DD's clothes got muddy at the farm and I hadn't packed enough nappies for an overnight.

She returns DD at 1pm (she said between 11-12) and acts like it's no big deal. I did make an offhand comment to her that I found it a bit uncomfortable that my toddled spent the night in a house with people I have never met and that I would've been happy to come and collect them all or pay some of the taxi fare for them so they could have come home that night. MIL has been quite funny about it and said she won't be so keen to take DD out in future. AIBU?

OP posts:
watercolours · 24/04/2019 18:43

Exactly what @loveheart27 said. I would never trust her again & wouldn't have slept a wink all night.

Sashkin · 24/04/2019 18:45

Child abduction now? By whom?

The MIL. Refusing to return somebody’s child when they ask you to, and refusing to tell them where said child is, is child abduction. You understand that, right? That’s how NRPs can be charged with child abduction if they take the child without permission. Not exactly a legally contentious issue.

Pardonwhat · 24/04/2019 18:45

Wow!!! Posters stating that they’d have threatened her with reporting her to the police for kidnap. Some of you are batshit crazy Grin

CarolDanvers · 24/04/2019 18:49

I’d have been very angry and upset and I wouldn’t let MIL have her again. Only on MN do I see the “I would have been grateful for a child free night”. No one I know in RL would have been ok with this.

NoSauce · 24/04/2019 18:49

Oh sorry I thought you meant someone staying at the MILs friends house, what with all the histrionics on this thread.

youknowmedontyou · 24/04/2019 18:51

@loveheart27 would you consult the child's father on that or just decide on your own? He has a right to an opinion!

@Sashkin I think the police have better things to do than start looking and launching major search for children that are not abducted. I'd be truly horrified to have a child abducted and was side lined by a child staying unexpectedly overnight with their Gran! ( where I had confirmation of who they were with and telephone contact).

Pardonwhat · 24/04/2019 18:51

CarolDanvers

And no one I know in real life would be livid at a child’s loving grandparent trying to give their pregnant mother some time for respite whilst taking good care of the child - no matter how misguided it may have been.

GabsAlot · 24/04/2019 18:52

ar epeo0ple missing points here

she frantically text an hour after the apprent last train-why wouldnt she have text or rang before that id be crying if i missed the last ever train

it just doesnt add up

youknowmedontyou · 24/04/2019 18:52

@CarolDanvers I'm real life and I would've been fine..... HTH

CarolDanvers · 24/04/2019 18:53

Well thanks for your opinion but why would it “help” me Confused?

youknowmedontyou · 24/04/2019 18:55

@CarolDanvers because you don't believe anyone in real life would be happy! I'm just clarifying for you that real life people do... HTH

loveheart27 · 24/04/2019 18:56

No I wouldn't consult him if his mother can't return my child when ask and hung up on me no way would I let her have dc again!!
Saying that my mil doesn't have my dc on her own anyway because I don't trust her!

loveheart27 · 24/04/2019 18:57

Should have said hung up and wouldn't tell me where my child was!!

youknowmedontyou · 24/04/2019 18:57

@loveheart27 MY child not OUR child, you do not own your child, your OH is also a parent. You're being ridiculous if you think not.

youknowmedontyou · 24/04/2019 18:58

Should have said hung up and wouldn't tell me where my child was!!

Now why does t that surprise me?

CarolDanvers · 24/04/2019 18:58

I didn’t say I didn’t believe anyone would be happy with it, clearly they would be going by this thread, but I don’t know you in RL or anyone who would be happy with it so what I said is accurate and your opinion is totally irrelevant to what I said. I won’t type “HTH” at the end because I think it’s quite twatty when posters do that Smile

WildfirePonie · 24/04/2019 19:03

I wouldn't be able to relax not knowing where my DD was staying tbh...

youknowmedontyou · 24/04/2019 19:03

@CarolDanvers not as twaty as basing everything on a small selection of people!

ohfourfoxache · 24/04/2019 19:04

Holy fuckballs, I’d be apoplectic Shock

teyem · 24/04/2019 19:07

I too am more inclined to trust the veracity of my actual experience and the knowledge I have of the people I know over the goadsters and ego monsters of aibu. I think that's reasonable.

CarolDanvers · 24/04/2019 19:09

But I am not “basing everything” on the people I know. I didn’t say that. I said that no one I know would be happy with this in RL. I expressed surprise. That’s all. Why are you extrapolating what I said? You do realise everyone can read what I posted don’t you because you seem to just be making it up as you go along for some reason that I can’t fathom. Why are you taking my observation so personally?

CarolDanvers · 24/04/2019 19:09

Indeed teyem.

JeremyCorbynsCoat · 24/04/2019 19:25

I wouldn't be happy at all. Baffles me that some people would!

BertrandRussell · 24/04/2019 19:28

“she frantically text an hour after the apprent last train-why wouldnt she have text or rang before that id be crying if i missed the last ever train“
MAybe she got the train time wrong? And you’d be crying? In front of 3 small children?

hsegfiugseskufh · 24/04/2019 19:28

Its like the mum version of being a "cool wife" isnt it

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