Hello all,
I moved up from France to live with my Scottish partner about 8 years ago and we have two lovely children now with another one on the way. My parents live far away and our relationships is quite strained. There's no spontaneous visits and whenever there is a visit everything is very forced and nothing seems to be coming from a loving place. My FIL offered to look after our two boys every Monday which is a massive help and helps us out with massive nursery fees as well. The kids love they Poppa day and come home very happy every Monday.
My in-laws have two more daughters who are slightly younger and apart from those Mondays they don't have much to do with our children. Despite numerous invites and conversations in group chats as an example and invite to to for a picnic was met with "oh I really have to get my glass bottles cleaned and to the glass bin), they don't initiate any contact or ask about the kids during the week. Whenever the boys ask for a sleepover, it gets ignored. My heart breaks when I see friends who have parents who take their grandchildren out for trips, have them for sleepovers and just have amazing connections with them. I'm so sad that our children don't have any close relationships with their grandparents and I can't seem to shake the feeling that it might have to do something with me and my partner.
Is anyone else in the same position? Whenever we approach the subject they just say that they're busy and everything is fine (but when they don't respond to plans with us we hear later via my husband's sister that she stopped by and they all went to the pub...)
I know I shouldn't expect anything and they didn't ask to be grandparents but I find it very tricky to adjust my expectations at the moment...
Thank for reading