My family is Caribbean, my husband?s English.
We have 3 children DS1 6yrs, DS2 4yrs and DD1 18mths.
My family?s Victorian attitude to children is really getting me down.
Apart from my mother my brothers, nephews and nieces spend zero time with my children where as my husband?s family dotes on them.
I recently called a family meeting to discuss their lack of input into my children?s lives, silence fell. Their main excuse has always been distance, we live 30 miles apart, they?re all car owners (my in-laws are 46 miles away).
My nephew sited their behaviour. It?s not the first time my family has made comments about my children negatively.
My boys are typical 4 and 6 year olds, playful, energetic, rough and tumble, smart, imaginative, what else can I say I?m a mum in close contact with other mums and do not see my children act any better or worse than their peers. We?re always mixing with other families and I?m sure if my kids were so awful the invites would be nonexistent, surely?
They are described as having exquisite manners by school and my friends.
My niece is having an engagement party next month that we?ve all been invited to. I was really looking forward to it but not after a conversation I had with my mother a couple of days ago.
She asked what the boys would be wearing. I said nothing fancy as we all know boys just run around a dance floor doing skids on their knees anyway.
Her response was, ?...not if they were my kids...? Mom it?s a party. ?Yes she says with adults and Elders, what will they be thinking if you?re kids are all over the floor?? I say, ?They?ll think, ah there goes a 4 and 6 year old doing what boys do best on shinny dance floors?.
She then felt the need to tell me that my brother (father of the bride to be) was still unimpressed by DS1 pulling the petals off his wife?s hanging basket then denying it until pressured to tell the truth when he was 4!
Christ, child killers get a second chance but my 4 and 6 year old and carrying around a totally undeserved reputation, dished out ONLY by my family.
I recall my brother whose kids are now in their mid twenties doing naughty step, slipper on the bottom etc so surely they weren?t born perfect?
I do remember as a child behaving in a ?seen and not heard? manner when out visiting but surely if I can remember behaving like that then I was already at an age to know better.
I?m so not looking forward to this engagement party now, I just feel like my kids and my parenting is going to be under scrutiny all night.