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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To sat no to MIL at Christmas

236 replies

Hyggerama · 12/11/2022 21:55

She is visiting us just now, before today we hadn't seen her since the beginning of 2020 when DD was a baby. DD will be 3 soon and we also have baby DS. Dh and MIL are usually LC.

MIL is all over the kids, quite literally. She basically follows DD around as DD plays with her toys. She hovers over DS as he's playing on the floor and tries to get his attention all the time by making clicking noises. I took DS out to play in the swing, MIL wanted to come with, which was fine. I popped out through our gate to say a quick hi to a neighbour who was in his garden, she followed me all the way! After playing in the garden I was walking towards our bins carrying DS to put something small in, she actually followed me to the bins rather than going inside the house.

All of this is made more awkward by the fact that MIL doesn't speak much English (Has lived in the UK for 30+ years) so rather than trying to talk to the children she does this physical following, hovering and making weird clicking noises.

She doesn't know DS's name, she called him 'the little boy'. Small mercies, DS doesn't like it when she tries to hold him and starts crying, DD refused to give her a goodnight hug when she asked. I'm neither encouraging or stopping the children from interacting with her and I let them just do what they feel comfortable with.

So AIBU, DH said he might invite her for Christmas, which would mean a minimum 4 day stay because of the trains. He's not being the best host atm, he's playing on his phone and doing work stuff whilst she's sitting in the living room with us. I would happily accommodate a 2 day stay but 4 days would just be too much for me, and probably the DC too!

I've said that she can visit after Christmas when the trains are running normally. She has a son and lots of close friends in her hometown so she wouldn't be alone.

OP posts:
thinkfast · 17/11/2022 22:23

Have you tried being a bit more direct with her OP?

"Could you sit over there please MIL? You're too close to me and it's a bit oppressive."

"Stop clicking at DC please MIL. It's getting a bit much"

"Please stop following me MIL. I'd prefer you not to come with me right now"

"Why are you staring at me MIL. It's quite intense if you stare at me like that and you're making me feel very uncomfortable."

FinnysTail · 17/11/2022 22:34

thinkfast · 17/11/2022 22:23

Have you tried being a bit more direct with her OP?

"Could you sit over there please MIL? You're too close to me and it's a bit oppressive."

"Stop clicking at DC please MIL. It's getting a bit much"

"Please stop following me MIL. I'd prefer you not to come with me right now"

"Why are you staring at me MIL. It's quite intense if you stare at me like that and you're making me feel very uncomfortable."

Or even.. “I’m going to feed DS now. MIL Would you make us a nice cup of tea?”

Christmas - Is there anybody who hasn’t hosted their in laws for Christmas? Whether they want to or not. Everyone manages to cope with the disruption, once a year … or 3.

NumberTheory · 18/11/2022 01:08

thinkfast · 17/11/2022 22:23

Have you tried being a bit more direct with her OP?

"Could you sit over there please MIL? You're too close to me and it's a bit oppressive."

"Stop clicking at DC please MIL. It's getting a bit much"

"Please stop following me MIL. I'd prefer you not to come with me right now"

"Why are you staring at me MIL. It's quite intense if you stare at me like that and you're making me feel very uncomfortable."

Probably less effective than you’re imagining when they don’t share a language (which is, you’ll recall, the reason MiL is clicking at the DC in the first place).

NumberTheory · 18/11/2022 01:11

FinnysTail · 17/11/2022 21:00

And you think OP has welcomed her DC’s grandmother into their lives because….? 🤷🏻‍♀️

that’s totally besides the point since her DH hasn’t welcomed his DM into their lives but is now expecting OP to do all the mediating, buffering and facilitating.

sm506156 · 20/11/2022 18:04

The phones and facetime works 2 ways not just one. You mil needs to learn English plus you need to learn her language as well. She is just trying to be close to her dil and her grandchildren and you don't see it nor appreciate it. Your husband also needs to entertain his own mom while she is there not just you and the kids.

NosieRosie · 06/12/2022 13:01

Gosh what a depressing thread 🥺Personally, I can’t see what it is your MIL has done so wrong to warrant so much hate. There has to be a back story.

For reasons, best known by yourself, you don’t want MIL to visit for Christmas. That should be enough. You don’t have to make plans to avoid her. Just let her know she won’t be welcome for Christmas, and why.

TBH your posts read that your husband is a selfish, lazy so and so. Yet your wrath is directed toward his mother, who would like to know her grandchildren.

There will be women, all over the UK, hosting their in laws this Christmas. Whether they like them or not. She may not be your mother but she is your children's grandmother. Why are you denying your children a relationship with their grandmother?

KettrickenSmiled · 06/12/2022 16:13

Gosh what a depressing thread 🥺Personally, I can’t see what it is your MIL has done so wrong to warrant so much hate. There has to be a back story.
Don't worry, there is, & you will feel much less depressed when you RTFT.

For reasons, best known by yourself, you don’t want MIL to visit for Christmas. That should be enough. You don’t have to make plans to avoid her. Just let her know she won’t be welcome for Christmas, & why.
For reasons stated clearly by OP, neither MiL or DH really want her to be there for xmas.
Hence her now coming in January.

TBH your posts read that your husband is a selfish, lazy so and so.
More that he is avoidant, because he doesn't get on with his mother.
Yet your wrath is directed toward his mother, who would like to know her grandchildren.
She really doesn't. You'd know that if you'd RTFT.

There will be women, all over the UK, hosting their in laws this Christmas. Whether they like them or not. She may not be your mother but she is your children's grandmother. Why are you denying your children a relationship with their grandmother?
Again, if you'd RTFT, you;d know that it's the GM is the one denying herself family relationships. With her own DC, & with her GC.
The fact that other women are hosting MiL's this xmas is nothing to do with OP, & her specific situation with her MiL, who tends to avoid contact with her family, doesn't ''do' xmas anyway, & is content to visit in January instead.
OP isn't denying anybody anything.

MichelleScarn · 06/12/2022 16:23

Basically everything @KettrickenSmiled has succinctly put above!
If I had written that and was younger and cooler (if cool's even a thing to be these days!) Id have added 'mike drop at the end 😎

KettrickenSmiled · 06/12/2022 19:55

@MichelleScarn Blush

What a sweet thing to say. Also - take comfort, you are statistically likely to be younger than me Wink

Anyway, I committed a bold fail in that post.* *Rats.

Redebs · 26/12/2022 17:44

JudgeJ · 12/11/2022 22:38

It may well be a joke but I have little patience with people, usually women, who have lived in this country for 30 years but can't speak the language although I do know from experience that that's not always been their choice.
Before we get the usual, I lived abroad and did learn the language.

In some cultures women don't feel comfortable mixing outside the family. Don't be so judgemental

AutumnCrow · 26/12/2022 18:02

DH doesn't like MIL and doesn't enjoy her company, she's only seen us once in the past 3 years and doesn't know our son's name but she thinks she's granny of the year and constantly follows our DD when she's finally seeing her. She's socially inept and awkward and I can't have a normal conversation with her but DH has invited her for 4 days over Christmas because he thinks it'll be nice for her. Would I be U R to be pissed off?

Yes, that very much should have been your OP, @Hyggerama. It's now 'hidden' mid-thread and will get ignored by tonnes of posters who can't even be arsed reading all of the OP's posts, let alone the actual thread.

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