Brilliant MIL's

[eidsvold]

I think sometimes MIL's get bad press. I do have a great mother in law ( 2nd marriage). 1st marriage - yeh she was a dragon who lived up to all the jokes about interfering old MIL's and the rest.

BUT today my dd (7 mths)and I spent the day out shopping with my MIL - first time - she was happy to carry dd for a while, push the pram, watch over her while i ran around boots collecting what I needed and sorted dd's perscription. She treated me to lunch and was happy to nurse dd while I had my lunch and finished. She kept telling me how good dd was behaving. I needed to buy a couple of things for dd and she volunteered to pay - I let her on the little things!! I even had to stop her trying to buy dd a new car seat!! She bought her a couple of stimulating toys that will help with dd's development.

She told me what a brilliant job dh and I have done so far with dd. She also told me how well she thought dh and I had coped with dd's surgery, development etc.

She phoned to make sure we got home okay - had to drive over an hour to get home. She also said she could not wait to spend the day out with us again.

I enjoyed myself and dd is worn out with the attention and grandma love.

What more can I say!!

I have a great MIL too. She doesn't interfere and usually just goes with whatever we decide about DD, with no disagreements/comments. Obviously there are occasions when they are minor disagreements as in all forms of relationships but on the whole all is good. MIL also looks after 10 month old DD one day a week which is working well so far.

Don't know if it helps but I met DH when we were only 16 so I have kind of grown up around his family too.

eidsvold ... you are so lucky - I wish I were you. I would love nothing more than my MIL, FIL and Step MIL to show the teeniest tiniest bit of interest in DS ... I find it so unnatural that they don't and it makes me so sad. the homesickness that I feel all the time gets worse whenever I see them as it illustrates to me how good my parents as grandparents compared to them ...
Enjoy your MIL and know that you are a lucky DIL to have her ...

I to have a great mil and fil. I get on with them much better than my own parents. They were very suportive through my PND and always asked how I was before anything else.

I look forward to going round there house, because they are a good laugh as well.

I too have a great MIL who would love to help more but unfortunately lives at the other end of the country and is also starting to get a bit old to leave the children with when we are up there.

My parents on the other hand who live not too far away, are just not that interested. I can get them to babysit for "important" things like school open evenings or hospital appointments but no chance for dh and I to spend an evening together. They are also very strict on discipline (they were when I was a child too) and whilst they don't say anything about mine not being well-behaved I do feel I have to keep them (the children that is) on a very tight rein in order not to stress the grandparents. That's not to say I don't enjoy having my parents round - they're quite fun to talk to, they'll look after the younger ones while I go on the school run - usually by reading to them but not playing with them much(!) - but it would be nice to have parents who really enjoy their grandchildren like my MIL does.

I've posted about this before, I think my in laws are wonderful. They took the sluglet for two days a week from the time she was 3 months old so i could go back to work. I was finding being a SAHM very difficult and I'm sure this stopped me from sliding into depression.

They are always ready to take her if they can, help with clothes and beautiful knitted jumpers. She spent the day with them today so dh could go to work and I when I pick her up I always get a run down on what she's been up to, complete with amusing anecdotes and they never make it sound as if it's been a chore even if, reading between the lines, she's been a terror and worn them out.

They've always supported our decisions even when dh announced he was giving up work to be a sahd. I could tell they were quite dubious, but they have got behind us completly and helped to make it work.

OK, i'm slightly pissed and probably gushing, but they really are wonderful, wonderful people.