I'll pass on that, thanks hermione!
Right, cowbag MIL rant alert!
My MIL is a smelly, manky, selfish old trout with nothing to redeem her. It's a long story, but to sum up, she's an only child and very close to her parents. When DH's dad left her, her parents supported her and practically brought up DH. They always lived in the same street as her, and when she decided to move from London to Somerset, they came too. In Dec 2007, her mother passed away leaving her aged father in her care. In Dec 2008 she decided to move to Spain, leaving her father completely alone, in a cold, undecorated house to fend for himself. He had heart failure and wasn't well at all, but her attitude was that if he needed help, he could pay for it. She'd had enough of taking him a bowl of porridge in the morning (and we have since learned that she knew he was loaded and resented doing stuff for him he should, in her opinion, pay for. Never mind the years of support and free childcare, or the fact that he's her father...) Anyway, we cared for him as best we could until he died last April.
She came to the UK on Dec 2nd to sort out her aunt's estate. On Dec 19th DH phoned her to see if she was coming to see us (she hadn't been in touch). She said she'd come in January, and could we buy the children presents from her and wrap them up? He texted her on Christmas day to say happy Christmas, and she replied to ask if he'd emailed the solicitor about something to do with her dad's estate.
I made DH call her today because I'm getting stressed about when she's coming, and we have loads on, but she won't be specific about a date - she just said 'probably the end on January.' Uh, hello, we're having a baby! Now this might be unreasonable pregnant hormones, but I don't want her in my baby's nursery or even in my house when I could give birth any day. As I mentioned, she's not the most fragrant (heavy smoker), her husband is disgusting AND they have a dog! which they just bring into our house without asking. Plus, I'm fucked if I'm going to cook and clean for them! It's bad enough that our house is going on the market in the next couple of days.
DH just keeps telling me not to get stressed. But he won't stick up for me. He just says to her, ok, that's fine. And it's not! Why can't he tell her how it is? He's now said that we'll come to a family friend's in Portsmouth (they're seeing them first - we're literally at the bottom of their list) on Jan 22nd. But I'll be 37 weeks preg, and apart from the fact a 4 hour round trip will be fucking uncomfortable, going so far away from home at 37 weeks makes me feel anxious.
I used to say that I'd put up with her because she's my children's grandmother, but she doesn't give a flying fuck about the children. And she drives from Spain to Calais to get the Eurostar here because her dog is scared of ferries and aeroplanes, but she won't drive from Southend to Bristol to see her son and grandchildren for Christmas.
I feel so stressed about this! I wish she'd just fuck off!