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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Husband trying to compete which grandparents see DC more

294 replies

hmhwd · 10/08/2024 14:54

More like, is he being unreasonable or is this a normal reaction from him?

DC Is 2.5. My family is quite wealthy, his is pretty average. In laws live closer so we see them for day trips once a month, my mum lives further so I will visit her overnight for a couple of nights but also about once per month.
Sadly my DF died when I was a teen but he was highly successful, left a large inheritance to my mum and I. My mum, having raised me, now mainly travels the world, enjoys life and helps me out with raising DC when I need it. On a few holidays (3-4 per year) she will invite me and DC along, DH is invited too but can't join for all of them because of limited annual leave, he does join for probably half (sometimes joins part way through a holiday, sometimes doesn't join at all and sometimes joins for the full length). These holidays are fully paid for by my mum. When not on holiday, I'll sometimes go to stay with my mum for a night or two if DH knows he will work late - her house is large enough for DC to have their own room, all the "child" equipment that I need can be and is stored at hers. On other days, my mum will just pop over to ours to help out, play with DC etc - this doesn't affect DH because he is out at work and it'll be in the daytime.

My ILs see DC far less. They can't afford to take us on holiday and my DH wouldn't pay for them to go with us. They visit maybe once a month. Staying at theirs is more difficult because a) it would need to be over a weekend when DH can come and b) the house is a squeeze, we don’t have anything there that we need (baby chair, cot, all the nappies / bottles / aprons / toys) so have to bring everything. I guess I also don't ask for help from my ILs the way I do from my own mum (for example if I need someone to watch DC whilst I have a doctors appointment - I will ask my mum or move it, never ask my ILs), largely because I just don't have that kind of relationship with them. We are civil and no arguments but we don't "get on like a house on fire" in that we have very different views, not many common interests. I find their visits tedious and exhausting for many (very subtle but many) reasons - none because they're terrible people, just that I find them difficult to be around, we run out of conversation fast and we have to fake agreeing on topics.

I've noticed recently my husband really tries to compete and compensate. He's trying to squeeze us into their house at Xmas (as opposed to hotel like we've done previous years) even though that meant 6 adults and 1 child in a 2/3 bedroom house (3rd bedroom is a study that will have a blow up bed in the middle, the bedroom we stay in will mean either someone sleeps on a floor mattress so we physically can’t open the door or walk around until mattress lifted, or all 3 of us sleep in a small double bed). Or he is irritable when he sees that DC will run towards my mum shouting GAM-GAAAAAAM ("grandma") or when the two have little inside jokes or games. If I ask about it he claims he's absolutely fine and just wants DC to give "gam-gam" a rest (my mum is thrilled with it, doesn’t want a rest). I can just feel resentment towards my mum for being able to spend more time with DC?

OP posts:
OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/08/2024 14:22

have you spent every Christmas having to visit them for Christmas ?
( doesn't matter if in a hotel or in their home )

hmhwd · 15/08/2024 14:26

@OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon yes, my mum is less bothered about Xmas, she does her own thing or with her sister. Whereas for in laws it's very much an event, the one year DH's sister didn't make it (she was in aus with her then boyfriend) MIL spent the day crying and saying how "it just doesn't feel like Xmas"

OP posts:
hmhwd · 15/08/2024 14:28

@Barryplopper I would love that - a night off, sleep through the whole night, join them in the morning. Unfortunately DH wouldn't agree to that as he really struggles to manage a toddler solo and there would be a lot of "mummy mummy where's my mummy I want mummy", which, again is difficult for him to deal with

OP posts:
Vabenejulio · 15/08/2024 14:30

hmhwd · 15/08/2024 14:13

@Vabenejulio thank you!

Can I ask, how did you sort / what did you land on with the travel times, Xmas, space disagreements?

I did it. At one point we were four people (toddler, DH and me in a double bed, baby in a travel cot next to us - nobody got good sleep!) in one small bedroom, using a shared bathroom. It sucked, but I was a SAHM. Plenty of time to recover after our visit. DH’s parents offered their bigger bedroom: I wouldn’t dream of turning them out of their bedroom in their own home. Kitchen was too small to have more than three people in it. Dining table big enough for four only. It wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. Time has moved on, ILs getting on, DC huge, and we host now (comfortably!).

Christmas is always with DH’s family as we live over an ocean away from my family. Travel over the holiday period is just too stressful. My choice to move here to be with DH, so my problem really. My parents mind, but I can’t make the distance shorter or airports less crowded or delays disappear. We spend long stretches with them over summer.

Dery · 15/08/2024 15:05

“HP07 · 11/08/2024 12:07
Sounds totally reasonable to me that he wants his child to have a relationship with his parents.
sometimes you have to make some sacrifices so that it works, share family festivities and pack a bag of stuff when you visit like most people do. Not everything can be stored at the grandparents home. Your child is also now 2.5 and can make do with a lot of stuff, doesn’t need a proper cot, can probably sit at a normal chair for a couple of days etc.
You don’t mention the sex of your DC in your OP but if your child is male one day he may grow up and have children of his own and you may be the pushed out IL so please consider that.
We have always made an effort to include our in laws in our children’s lives. We have a boy and a girl and I want them to both see that all of their grandparents play an important role.”

This with bells on. My dad’s parents had a much smaller living space than my mum’s. No-one would have dreamed of excluding either from being grandparents. We’ve been the same with the grandparents of our DCs - they have all been very actively involved (our DCs are much older and sadly 2 have now died).

As for the highlighted bit, I remember a post on here not so long ago from a paternal grandmother, complaining how she had been squeezed out of her DGCs’ lives. She did comment that she’d done the same to her MIL when she had DCs so she’d evidently taught her son (now an adult with kids) that that is how these things work and that the man’s parents are unimportant. She had the self-awareness to recognise that and was not enjoying seeing the process repeated with her on the receiving end.

I’m sorry you lost your father as a teenager. That must have been very hard. But your attitude to your DH and his parents - it’s mean-spirited and not in your DC’s best interests. You seem only to be able to measure these things materially, but your DC is entitled to good relationships with both parents and both sets of grandparents and that’s about love, having fun and good times; it’s not about having the most toys and the most money.

Leanmeansmitingmachine · 15/08/2024 15:09

The posters getting incredibly irate at the OP for having strong boundaries and sense of self, are likely the same ones who get irate at other OPS for ‘martyring’ themselves, being ‘doormats’, and for putting themselves out all the time.

WearyAuldWumman · 15/08/2024 15:15

Diarygirlqueen · 11/08/2024 10:52

I feel sorry for your husband and his family. You come across very spoiled and smug. I hope your attitude doesn't come back to bite you...

Yup. The smug comment saying that there wouldn’t be a 50/50 custody split made my mind up for me…and that’s not necessarily how it works, anyway.

Manthide · 15/08/2024 15:30

Dd2's dh comes from a wealthy family. Her pils can only stay in the UK for so many days a year and they pay for her, her dh and their dc to go on holiday with them or to visit them at one of the properties they own abroad. Her dh also received a large inheritance from his gm so they have bought a very expensive house. This doesn't stop them visiting us in our rundown 3 bed semi (2 of my 4 dc still live at home) for Christmas or Easter and making do! We are on universal credit so obviously not in her pils league.
I don't see the OP's marriage lasting long if she is so focused on her needs and her money.

Findinganewme · 15/08/2024 18:51

Are you quite snobby, OP? Is this the source of your discomfort, really?

Demonhunter · 15/08/2024 20:16
Not Funny Reaction GIF

I don't think I've thought this before, but I hope your DH is staying with you for your money and that there's some flaw in your prenup when he finally has enough of your really terrible, snobby attitude.

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/08/2024 20:28

hopefully the Op has ring fenced her massive contribution to the marriage - as so many women on MN get advised to do so.

ButWhatAboutTheBees · 15/08/2024 22:28

Her massive contribution being jetting off on holiday and leaving DH alone. Spending money on hotels instead of just slumming it for a few days. Hating his parents. Thinking she can stop him using his parents for childcare if they split....

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 15/08/2024 23:06

No rent, no mortgage, and not even half the bills...

if this thread had been written by someone else, on a different subject i.e. i don't like tulips in the garden i prefer daffodils but my husband insists on me buying tulips

everyone would be calling him a cock lodger

ButWhatAboutTheBees · 15/08/2024 23:59

Because she is, like SO MANY women, contributing towards household bills too

OP isn't some saint for doing that. She's just being part of the family.

Actually, it would be they need to compromise and have daffodils and tulips. Like compromising that ONCE a year OP slums it a little so they actually spend some time together with his family.

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 16/08/2024 00:24

@ButWhatAboutTheBees

Have you actually read each of the op's replies

or were you blinded by the discovery that they have spent every Christmas with his family...

and

she eventually admitted he doesn't actually pay 50% of the bills - ' As it currently is, we provide 50/50ish if not slightly more from me.'

HomeAloneWithThree · 16/08/2024 17:07

OP I’m in the same position and in my experience the best thing to do is to let it play out so that your other half will see how terrible an idea it was and hopefully won’t subject you to it again.

Your little one is still so young, in time your in-laws will get bored and the little effort they put in now will fizzle out completely.

im sorry you’re in this position

HMW1906 · 17/08/2024 19:44

YABU for making up crap reasons for why you can’t let your child have a better relationship with his paternal grandparents.

There is no reason you can’t all be squeezed into a room for a couple of nights over Christmas so everyone can spend some time together, get an inflatable toddler bed, they’re much smaller than a standard airbed and DC will be fine on that for a few days.

So you can manage to pack up bottles, aprons, whatever other stuff you need to take with you when you go on holiday with your mum but you can’t possibly do that to visit your in-laws for a weekend???

If they’re closer why can’t your in-laws look after DC whilst you go to appointments, have you asked them if they’d like to?

I say this as a boy mum also….one day you will be the mother in law, there’s a very good chance that your future grandchildren may have a better relationship with their other grandparents as daughters tend to gravitate towards their own parents (as you are doing)….how will YOU feel in that situation?

saraclara · 17/08/2024 19:55

You are so, so privileged @hmhwd . The rest of your year runs how you want it to, enjoying the benefits of your wealth and your mum's. Yet you can't bring yourself to, just once, just for three days, be mildly uncomfortable, to make your DH and your PILs happy. Less than 1% of the year. And only for those very few hours when you're in the bedroom and not asleep.

You say squashing up is all very well if it's for an event. Well Christmas IS an event. It might not be special for you, but for everyone else involved, it clearly is.

Having boundaries is all very well, but if it means that the people you love, and the people who love them, have to always play second fiddle, then your boundaries are actually just selfishness.

Lola2321 · 18/08/2024 22:18

Marseillaise · 15/08/2024 08:42

Why not ask his parents round to yours at Christmas? I must say, Christmas in a hotel sounds miserable.

We went on holiday for Christmas and new year, can honestly say it was the best experience, and best Christmas ever!

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