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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To still be seething she made a cake

427 replies

TheCakeConspiracy · 18/06/2023 06:27

We threw a small party a few weeks ago for DS's birthday. My mother had offered to make a cake. This was very kind of her, however it's our child's birthday and we really wanted to provide the cake. Explained this to her and asked if she could make something else instead.

Skip to party day, she turns up with the 'something else' AND a cake! Ultimately the centre piece of a birthday party.

AIBU to still be quietly raging about this?

Yes - get over it, she was just trying to be nice and it's only a cake

No - she didn't listen to you, didn't care what you wanted and tried to take over a little bit

OP posts:
Aprilx · 18/06/2023 08:19

I bet your child was delighted to have a second cake. To be seething about this weeks later is incredible to me.

MargotBamborough · 18/06/2023 08:19

sodthesodoff · 18/06/2023 07:47

Who knew 'no' actually means 'yes' in some instances. As long as it's your mum (cause hey she might be dead so consider yourself lucky) and it's about cake (cause no one's allowed to have boundaries about cake)

Honestly I don't know what the relationship is like with the ops mum. But the fact she ignored a direct request not to do something speaks volumes. It's not hard to guess this isn't the first time. Her opinions and wishes have been ignored. So yeah it's a cake but it's also the straw that broke the camels back.

And for those saying it's just a cake suck it up, who needs boundaries with cake. That's the thing about boundaries. Anyone with lived experience of abuse/narcissists/general dickheads can tell you it starts with one boundary. Until you have nothing left. It's not as easy as saying oh I'll let them have this one and then they'll leave me alone and respect my other wishes.

Alternative point of view: it's not about boundaries but about rules and control.

My mum would tell you she had strict boundaries with ne growing up. I would tell you it was her way or the highway, and she got so mad about stupid, inconsequential things that really didn't matter, that there was nowhere left for her to go on the big things that did matter.

I remember one of the worst things she did was a punishment because I forgot to go to one half-hour long music lesson which was usually after school but had been moved to lunchtime one week because the teacher had another appointment. I lied and told her I had gone because I knew she would go completely mental and massively overreact, and if there was a chance of her not finding out, I would take it. Of course she did find out, and the punishment was severe.

Did I learn that my mum had strict boundaries that I was not to cross?

No. I learned that she had absolutely no sense of proportion and a complete inability to control her temper.

From that moment on, whenever she got angry, I assumed that it was probably just because she was crazy and not because I had done anything objectively bad. I obeyed her most of the time because I was living under her roof and she was able to control me through things like access to money and lifts (we lived somewhere with little to no public transport). It didn't make me have any more respect for her though.

Now the boot is on the other foot somewhat, in the sense that I am an adult with my own life and my own money, living far away, and she wants to make sure that she gets to see me and my kids, which involves a long journey and a lot of money each time, so she's a lot more careful about falling out with me. I could use this to my advantage and be really controlling of her and her behaviour, but I don't. Because I remember both how it felt and how ineffective it was.

So yes, by all means, have boundaries in place with the people in your life, particularly the people who need boundaries because they don't just behave properly without needing to be told. But bear in mind that if you fly off the handle about cake one week and then the next week your mother flouts your no social media rule by posting a picture of your child naked in the bath to Facebook, how do you communicate the relative severity of these offences when you've already gone straight to level 10 over the cake thing?

You can't.

And then the person will no doubt go around telling anyone who will listen that you are horrible and controlling and you have rules about EVERYTHING, and because they will bring up that time you went mad about cake, everyone will sympathise with them. Whereas if you accepted the cake with a polite smile and a thank you, but went nuclear over the social media thing, there's a much greater chance that the person concerned would take you seriously, or that anyone they told about it would side with you and say, "Actually Linda, she is right. You shouldn't put pictures of children on Facebook if their parents have asked you not to."

MargotBamborough · 18/06/2023 08:20

And to add to that last post, it might be something more dangerous than pictures on Facebook, such as not cutting grapes in half or letting a one year old face forward in a 360 degree car seat.

PimpMyFridge · 18/06/2023 08:22

Can't vote because it all depends on whether she's usually a perfectly normal mum who has just made a faux Pas and should be forgiven in a heartbeat... or whether she's a mum who loves trampling your boundaries and being passive aggressive etc.

Nousernamesleftatall · 18/06/2023 08:23

I wouldn’t care about this at all. Sorry.

PimpMyFridge · 18/06/2023 08:25

Great advice from hard won wisdom there @MargotBamborough 💐

PurplePear7 · 18/06/2023 08:25

If it was decorated like a child’s birthday party cake then yeah, seethe away but a sponge cake with fruit would be fine to have alongside the main birthday cake at a party.

Or you could have it after the party, or just make her take it home?

Meanoldlady · 18/06/2023 08:28

My mum did this a couple of times when my boys were little. I said thanks and everyone had more cake to eat.

Yeah, she overstepped a bit but not really a big deal.

Mil who I'm close to, insists on getting the birthday cake for our youngest now. I let her because it makes her happy.

Our kids aren't just ours really, if the wider family care enough to make that much of a fuss then they're lucky to have them and to be that loved imo. Plenty of kids aren't.

Theydontknowthatweknowthattheyknow · 18/06/2023 08:29

I totally get you OP. Making cakes is something I'm not amazing at but love doing. I love making them for my dd and want it to be something she remembers me doing for her. I'd be really upset if someone else rocked up with one especially if I'd specifically asked them not to. Like pp have said it isn't simply about a cake it's about having relatives that want to control your own kid's birthday. You need to stamp it out OP even if it upsets your mum. Honestly it's times like this I'm glad that MIL especially basically wants nothing to do with my dd

GiantCheeseMonster · 18/06/2023 08:30

If this is an isolated incident, YABU, it’s a cake. But if this is part of a wider pattern, then you need to tackle it head-on or it will get worse and ruin your relationship as you’ll feel so much resentment. I speak from experience.

Some Mums/MILs find the shift to being Grandma/no longer the Matriarch quite difficult. My own MIL was like this and wanted my DCs to basically have the same childhood as their Dad. Eg she had always done Christmas presents on Christmas Eve as per the European tradition. She insisted that this was how Christmas was going to be going forward and when we said that presents were going to be opened on Christmas Morning, she got very cross and sulky. But you have to be firm from the outset that of course you want your DCs to have a close and brilliant relationship with their grandparents, but you are the parents and you now make the decisions that after all they have already had the opportunity to make for themselves when their own DCs were small.

I should add I now have an excellent relationship with MIL and so do the DCs, she’s a brilliant Grandma. It just took a bit of time to adjust the boundaries and you do have to draw clear lines there.

Zonder · 18/06/2023 08:30

Yanbu but you can either seethe and let it bring you down or you can let it go and feel sorry for her that she has this pathetic need and bear it in mind for all future events.

Thereoughttobeclowns · 18/06/2023 08:32

I don’t think I could summon the energy to be ‘seething’ over this. Mildly irked, possibly.

Vallmo47 · 18/06/2023 08:35

I’d be annoyed she hadn’t listened to my clear instructions but I’d accept the cake, put it on the side and eat it another time. Seething days later, no.

I’m another who has lost my mum and still doesn’t agree with the comment made by a poster. Just because my mum died doesn’t make everyone else’s perfect. I had blazing rows with my mum at times and still loved her with all of my heart- I’d be even angrier if someone had told me not to have rows cause one day we will all be dead.

Babymamamama · 18/06/2023 08:37

Nah I struggled to get my mother to have any interest in my DC so if she’d rocked up with a home made cake and something/anything else I would have probably fainted from the shock. Your DM doesn’t listen but she cares. I would take that any day.

viques · 18/06/2023 08:37

Which cake had the candles on? Because the cake with the candles is the one that a 4 year old is interested in.

Fisharejumping · 18/06/2023 08:37

MustardCress · 18/06/2023 06:46

I think this rather misses the point that generally people who deliberately ignore you and override your wishes aren’t shy, delicate wallflowers who fade into the background but who, as the OP quite predictably says, have form for taking over and making themselves the centre of attention whether anyone else likes it or not.

Grow up with someone like this and it’s hard not to become worn down by it and saying something to the obviously makes no difference.

Our job as grownups is to work on our own boundaries and actions. We can’t control others. Op sounds as controlling as dm. She knows dm loves making cakes for dgc. Why not just let her get on with it? Dm was careful not to make a centrepiece cake, which tells me she is not as attention grabbing as op reckons.

I have recently discovered that people who are bothered by the attention seeking of other women are often attention seekers themselves.* The rest of us cba and just let them all get on with it.

*Having said that though, I do understand why a mum would want to be at the centre of her dc’s bday party.

Op, try to let it go. I am sure you have other battles to fight.

Wafflesandcrepes · 18/06/2023 08:37

Alongtimelonely · 18/06/2023 06:31

yabu

My mum is dead. How I wish I had the luxury of being outraged she brought a cake to my dc’s birthday.

Seriously - check yourself.

This.

justprance · 18/06/2023 08:38

Meanoldlady · 18/06/2023 08:28

My mum did this a couple of times when my boys were little. I said thanks and everyone had more cake to eat.

Yeah, she overstepped a bit but not really a big deal.

Mil who I'm close to, insists on getting the birthday cake for our youngest now. I let her because it makes her happy.

Our kids aren't just ours really, if the wider family care enough to make that much of a fuss then they're lucky to have them and to be that loved imo. Plenty of kids aren't.

This! And what @MargotBamborough said.

CleverLilViper · 18/06/2023 08:39

romdowa · 18/06/2023 07:20

Are posters here still drunk? Or just purposely being dim? It's not about the cake ffs. It's about ops boundaries not being respected, probably not for the first or the hundredth Time either🙄🙄
As a pp said above , your the mother and you need to take control. Pop the spare cake in the fridge , cut it up or bin it. If you don't stand up for yourself and reaffirm those boundaries, this woman will just continue to take over

Oh yes because if you don’t agree with all of you we’re all dim or drunk. Or maybe, just maybe, hear me out- we just don’t agree.

It’s cake. It doesn’t sound like it was overly birthday themed so it’s possible that it was intended for the adults or just to be an addition to the feast.

YABU to seethe over cake.

seawitchhair · 18/06/2023 08:39

hattyhathat · 18/06/2023 06:50

It's not just a cake is it. It's a birthday cake when she'd been specifically told, no I've got it covered.

I'd be annoyed OP. My mum is an excellent maker of cakes, I am not so much. However I still remember as a child how much I liked that my mum had made me a birthday cake and that is something I want to carry on for my child.

Next time - if it happens again put the cake in the kitchen and cut it up to serve. Maybe give her something specific to make - like a trifle or a quiche.

It was a sponge cake, covered in fruit - so not a birthday cake, actually.

FabFitFifties · 18/06/2023 08:40

So what you describe is just a lovely fruit cake. A contribution to the party. You should of explained that in the OP. YABVU.

Tidsleytiddy · 18/06/2023 08:40

Alongtimelonely · 18/06/2023 06:31

yabu

My mum is dead. How I wish I had the luxury of being outraged she brought a cake to my dc’s birthday.

Seriously - check yourself.

Yeh. Get a grip ffs

BodyKeepingScore · 18/06/2023 08:40

YABU -I don't know of a child or party guest who would even notice a second cake nor care where it came from.
In the grand scheme of things, a grandparent wanted to contribute a cake to their GCs birthday. Birthdays aren't a competition, they're a celebration of the life of the birthday person. Surely the more people celebrating that the better? I hate how parents and PILs get such a hard time on here for such innocuous things.

WickedSerious · 18/06/2023 08:42

I used to make cakes for a living,I've had many a bride in tears over some five tiered monstrosity their grandmother's 'surprised' them with.
I can understand why the OP is so angry about this,especially if her mother has form for this sort of nonsense.

Whyishewearingasombero · 18/06/2023 08:45

If my DD asked me not to bring a cake, then I wouldn't have. Even though my cakes are lovely!