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Help me refuse MIL's offers of "help"

26 replies

JonnyPocketRocket · 01/01/2020 06:04

My DS was born 6 weeks ago and in the first 2 weeks my MIL was super helpful, coming over a couple times a week to watch him while DH and I napped/ caught up on other jobs. She absolutely dotes on him, which is lovely, but her parenting style is quite different to mine and she's been offering since he was about 3 weeks old to babysit for a couple hours so I can go out and do various things that I've expressed no interest in doing - dinner with DH, a trip to the cinema etc. I feel like 6 weeks is way too young to leave a baby but am running out of reasons to politely decline. When I say I'm just not comfortable she says things like "oh I remember how it is, having separation anxiety when you first start leaving them!". Yesterday she told me she can watch him while I go to the cinema with the rest of the family on Saturday, and that she's offering now so I have time to get used to the idea. (But that there's no pressure Hmm) Am I being crazy to think that my position is quite sensible and normal, and calling it 'separation anxiety' is an unfair jibe?

We're also currently staying with them for a week and she keeps physically lifting him out of my arms saying 'helpful' things like "oh I can wind him for you" or, last night, "go enjoy the fireworks from the garden; I can stay here with him".

She's generally a lovely woman and I think well-intentioned, but I want to be with my sweet baby FAR more than I want to be in a restaurant/ at the cinema/ watching the fireworks! I feel like she's a bit dismissive of my parenting style (which is a bit "crunchy" and attachment-y) as a PFB phase that I'll get over soon enough. DH has offered to speak to her but I don't want to make a big issue of it as I've only recently gotten to the point of having a good relationship with her. What can I say that acknowledges her good intentions, but simultaneously communicates "back the fuck off", in a breezy, "I'm confident in my parenting choices, definitely wasn't up at 5am overthinking this" way?!

He's her first grandchild, if that makes a difference, and DH and I have been married 10 years, so she probably feels like she's been waiting a long time and now wants to make the most of grandmotherhood.

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JonnyPocketRocket · 02/01/2020 12:12

@annielennoxstuckinmyhead - Congratulations on your baby! These first few weeks are killer, aren't they, and I can't imagine doing it without family support, so kudos to you. I do feel incredibly fortunate to have supportive relatives and I'm sorry that didn't come across in my posts - I'm trying to get the balance right between doing what I consider best for my baby and maintaining a good relationship with my ILs and I don't always get that right. And you're right, my parenting "style" is very much a work in progress and very much in PFB territory - I'll probably look back and roll my eyes at myself but that's where I am right now.
I hope things get easier for you.

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