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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Mothers - who’s is more important?

452 replies

MrsRose2018 · 30/05/2020 12:02

Is the first time mothers “right” or “need” to see their mother/have them around post birth more important than the first time fathers?

No MN rage please, I’m not saying I believe this is true, This is just the conversation me and my husband have been having and I’m curious of your thoughts?

OP posts:
Whatnametomorrow10 · 30/05/2020 18:15

I have complex medical issues in the past and my Mum knows it inside out - I had a planned C-section and it reassured me having my Mum around, knowing if something went wrong she could quickly provide background information. (she didn’t come into the operating theatre) I know my MiL was upset that she didn’t get to meet the baby ‘first’ but she was 2nd!
With our second MiL looked after our first while again partner, mum and me went to hospital for section. I know MIL complained to husband why my mum got to meet baby first but he knew and understood why! He fainted when the doctor told him the risks - so he was more than happy for my mum to be there for the medical side!!
Irony is I’m not overly close to my Mum! Would have preferred just partner and me for a few days! But I do understand my MiL excitement and also the feeling of not being first!

MrsRose2018 · 30/05/2020 18:20

@Freddiefox lol are you kidding me? I'm doing things whilst posting and I'm not checking every detail if my post!

I'm a grown ass woman, I think I can handle some MN negativity! I don't need to hide behind a theoretical friend..

Please 🙄

OP posts:
MrsRose2018 · 30/05/2020 18:26

@Freddiefox also if you look at the beginning of that post I was talking about MY relationship with MY mum and this

"And again I've just had the baby and gone through it all and my hormones are whacked out so having MIL there doesn't sound like my idea of fun whereas my mum would be a godsend"

Was my giving my interpretation of my feelings of the situation

OP posts:
Inforthelonghaul · 30/05/2020 18:38

Personally both mums are as entitled to see the baby as each other and with Covid etc from a safe distance. I would simply say that both are welcome to visit but neither can stay, they will have to do what they are comfortable with.

I actually had my MIL stay after I had my first as I get on better with her than my own DM.

curtainsforme · 30/05/2020 18:50

Personally both mums are as entitled to see the baby as each other

Nobody has any entitlement. Get a real ass grip.

LolaSmiles · 30/05/2020 18:59

Also I don't really understand why there needs to be any person mother or not coming to stay when there are two adults in the house to learn together and share out the responsibilities fairly (especially as it's the first establishment of the blueprint of their new normal so really they need to learn it themselves) but then I don't really need to as it's not me who's choosing it.
We're the same. We had immediate family to visit and those who weren't local stayed in a hotel. The early days for for DH and I to get to know our new addition.

I read something quite interesting on the fact women are getting less work done WFH during lockdown than men. The writer mused over whether only women taking leave during the newborn phase, men getting used to their partner being the one to go part time/their partner to swoop in every time there's an issue means that the default mode in many relationships seems to be 'childcare = mum" because mums have had to learn how to cope, settle DC etc and dad has always got mum as backup

This thread makes me wonder whether the whole mum and mum's family to help, mum's mum on hand sets the scene from day 1: that children are the mother's thing

iolaus · 30/05/2020 19:07

I think you are fine to say I don't want anyone staying in the house for x amount of time (and depending on what the covid situation with hotels is may result in them not being able to come) but to say they can't come and see you/their son/the baby for a month does seem unreasonable

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 30/05/2020 19:08

Presumably this friend will.not be allowing anyone else to see the baby then until mil has seen it, four weeks after birth? Only I think the dad would be well within his rights to insist that friends or wider family don't get to see the baby before his mum.

PorpentiaScamander · 30/05/2020 19:12

Well as Grandparents they should be equal.

But it also depends on the relationship between the new Mum and the Grandmothers. Although it's kind of a moot point atm due to social distancing so no one can really 'visit' except at a distance.

When I had DS1 I'd had a 3 day labour, and then spent almost a week in hospital. When I got home I was exhausted. I was 19 and trying to get to grips with breastfeeding a tiny new baby and run a house (I'd only moved out of home 2 months previously). My mum would pop in after work with a shepherds pie/lasagne/whatever that could either go in the oven that night or the fridge for another day if (now ex) DP or I had already cooked. Once ExDp went back to work if she popped in she would send me for a nap if I needed it, bring me drinks so I could breastfeed, run me a bath etc.
Now ex MIL would always turn up around meal times, despite her not working and it being the summer holidays so her younger DC weren't at school. She would then make subtle digs about how I 'should' have been cooking for her son. Hints would be dropped that it was lunch/dinner time and her younger dd was hungry. She expected to be waited on hand and foot - but it had to be by me because that's 'a womans job'. Baby was picked up even if I'd spent forever finally getting him to sleep and asked for him to be left. She was a fucking nightmare.
When I had DS2 her and exSIL definitely contributed to my PND. :(

Sertchgi123 · 30/05/2020 19:15

Some of you with sons will change your minds.

Tootsie321 · 30/05/2020 19:19

My first dd was an emergency CS, born in the early hours of a Sunday morning. Dd ended up in neonatal cc. Despite being asked not to come in, PIL’s bullied their way in the next morning. Weren’t interested in me, just wanted dh to take them up to see baby, their first gc. When dd2 was born, they didn’t bother visiting for several days because, I later found out, it was another girl!! They never ever showed much interest in her.

When dc3 was born, it was a boy. PIL’s again bullied their way in, only a few hours after my CS, literally waving their hands in the air (I kid you not) saying “we’ve done it, we’ve got our boy.” They actually didn’t even look at me, just at my dh, asking him to hand the baby over. I actually hated them, for their attitude, and the way they acted with their other gcs, meant our relationship never recovered.

My dm had always been there for us all, helping me cope with 3 children under 3. My ils on the other hand only caused work and would expect me to supply them with tea, coffee, sandwiches etc. when they visited! Things came to a head when one day they visited and, whilst I went through to make a cup of tea, mil lifted my sleeping ds out of his pram and woke him up! I had struggled for 2 hours to settle him and within 20 minutes of putting him down they had woken him and he started screaming. I completely lost it with them and told them to get out. Fil turned to me and said that it wasn’t my house (mortgaged, plus I had put down the deposit) and their ds paid everything, so he was the only person who could tell him to get out!!

I actually ended up leaving my dh as he couldn’t/wouldn’t stand up for me with his parents! If grandparents want to see their dgcs they should respect boundaries, if they can’t do this they don’t deserve to be in their gcs lives.

MrsPerfect12 · 30/05/2020 19:19

Her own mother can live at her own home and give space to the couple. The MIL has to stay so she's quite right to give her mum priority. Entertaining isn't good with lack of sleep and new baby.

LolaSmiles · 30/05/2020 19:25

Sertchgi123 I agree with you.
It would be interesting to see how many of them in favour of excluding paternal grandparents will be totally fine if their son and future partner make it clear they're second tier parents/grandparents.

I'm sure there's an interesting link between people who are disappointed to have a son and people who think 'a son's your son until he finds a wife'. It's quite sad to see how people consider it inevitable to push a man's family out (and probably complain MIL is a controlling narc if she rightly calls out the favouritism).

Burnout101 · 30/05/2020 19:26

I think it's important to separate the issue out, makes it easier for everyone to understand. As for being new parents, the mother's parents are equal to the father's parents (unless there's bad behaviour involved). The mother though is also a person who has gone through a very tough physical process, not an illness but easily equal to one and is entitled to support for this, which she may want her mother/father for. It might be easier for new mothers to say 'I'm not ready for anyone round just to visit the baby yet but I need help from my mum while I'm getting there'.

Leaannb · 30/05/2020 19:29

@Lolasmiles...I.would be perfectly fine with ot. Because it's not about me. It's about my son and dip and their new baby. I would knock my son upside the head of he went against his wife's wishes on this.

Pinkblueberry · 30/05/2020 19:35

There are definitely some women who see their mothers as their main support and want their mother to take a stronger parenting role than the father. I guess that's ok if everyone is genuinely happy with it but it's quite alien to me and my DH definitely wanted to be the main person supporting me and the baby.

People need to do what’s best for them, but I definitely agree. It’s great to have family around to support (we had no one to help at all, it would have been lovely to have family closer) but I think it’s important that the parents are a strong team on their own. I think it doesn’t say great things about a relationship when your so keen to have your mum third wheeling.

maryd84 · 30/05/2020 19:36

@AnotherEmma, geez calm down! No need for the rolleyes. How does a 3 hour drive there and back = 12 hours in the car?

Some aggressive posters on this thread op🤔

SarahAndQuack · 30/05/2020 19:40

@lolasmiles, you seem determined to make this about people who don't like men. Why? Confused

It's nothing to do with that.

AnotherEmma · 30/05/2020 19:42

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SarahAndQuack · 30/05/2020 19:42

How does a 3 hour drive there and back = 12 hours in the car?

But that's not what the situation is? The MIL is three hours' drive away. Therefore it takes six hours to go and collect her, and six hours to drop her back home again. That's 12 hours in the car.

funinthesun19 · 30/05/2020 19:43

I think the mum should be the one who gets to have their mum there for obvious reasons. Don’t really need to spell it out.
However, in some circumstances it would be fine for the dad’s mum to be there instead. E.g. if the mum has a strained relationship with their mum and gets on better with their MIL.

BumpBundle · 30/05/2020 19:48

This isn't the "either or" situation that it is being made out to be. What you're asking is if it is unreasonable for one parent to prevent a newborn baby from meeting one set of grandparents against the wishes of the other parent, whilst allowing the other set of grandparents to meet the newborn.
The answer is yes. Just because she's the one that gave birth does not give her the right to unilaterally decide who gets to meet the baby.

AnotherEmma · 30/05/2020 19:48

"Some of you with sons will change your minds."

I have a son.

If he has a baby, I am not going to expect to stay at his house as an overnight guest in the immediate period after the birth. If I lived too far away to visit in a day, I'd stay in a hotel or B&B.

I most certainly wouldn't expect him to give me a lift there and back! But then I'm perfectly capable of driving on motorways Grin

Most importantly, I would respect the fact that his partner had just given birth to their child and needed time and space to recover and adjust.

But then I'm not the kind of person who's going to turn into a nightmare MIL.

Sertchgi123 · 30/05/2020 19:52

@AnotherEmma

"Some of you with sons will change your minds."

I have a son.

If he has a baby, I am not going to expect to stay at his house as an overnight guest in the immediate period after the birth. If I lived too far away to visit in a day, I'd stay in a hotel or B&B.

I most certainly wouldn't expect him to give me a lift there and back! But then I'm perfectly capable of driving on motorways Grin

Most importantly, I would respect the fact that his partner had just given birth to their child and needed time and space to recover and adjust.

But then I'm not the kind of person who's going to turn into a nightmare MIL.

I said some of you, not everyone.
SarahAndQuack · 30/05/2020 19:54

@Sertchgi123, having sons doesn't magically make you selfish.

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