Spare Parts September 13, 2007

Well I guess I wouldn’t be making my blogging comeback without having a mother-in-law story, so here goes.

As my longtime readers know, my 15 year old brother-in-law was killed in a car accident almost three years ago.  Since then we have all dealt with our grief in different ways, my MIL’s being that she’s trying to convert my daughter into her lost son.  Anyway, we were all having the discussion recently of whether or not The Hubby and I were going to have anymore children.  I was explaining that while I would love to have another child, I don’t know that I want to go through another pregnancy from hell, a c-section, and the horrible post-partum period.  We were all discussing the pros and cons, when my MIL piped up.  She informed us that you should always have more than one child, that way if you lose one “you can have a spare”.  Yeah that’s right, a spare.

From there she went on to belittle my husband by discussing how he has been her spare through this whole ordeal.  She said that while he may not be like Casey, he’s got potential to develop the same qualities.  I was dumbfounded that she would even go there.  I can not imagine considering any more of my future children spares in case something happens to Squeaks.

Yes it was true that she favored her youngest, but it is ridiculous to insinuate that my husband (the next best thing) will just have to do.  Just one more reason why my respect for her dwindles every day.

And MIL Makes Four June 26, 2007

I swallowed my pride and invited my MIL to accompany Squeaks and me to the zoo yesterday. It must have been a moment of temporary insanity. As soon as the invitation was on the table, I regretted it. And then I dreaded it for the 3 days leading up to it. The Hubby kept telling me it wouldn’t be that bad. It was.

Once we got there, I paid for parking, then paid admission for all of us. I had invited her, so I figured it was the nice thing to do. We started going around the zoo and she fell right into her mode of telling Squeaks what to do. Hello? We’re at the zoo. Let her be a freaking kid. For example, I took the umbrella stroller with us, knowing she wouldn’t want to ride in it at first, but she would get tired later and would want a ride. My MIL tried to force Squeaks to ride in it the entire time. I’m not even sure why. Squeaks was walking and staying right with us!

Lots of little issues like that came up throughout the morning, but it all came to a head after a few hours. Squeaks was burning up and cranky, she was tired and ready to leave. We had only made it halfway through the zoo, but that’s about the norm for her. Well my MIL was pissed at the idea of leaving simply because Squeaks wanted to. She literally whined that she hadn’t gotten to see everything yet. I was dumbfounded. The woman is a grandmother and was throwing a fit because it was time to leave. I started walking to the exit, but my MIL was wander off to look at something along the way. I finally had to tell her that we were leaving and if she wanted to stay, she could call someone to come pick her up. I guess that finally got through to her, and we made our exit.

Once in the air conditioned car, Squeaks settled down a lot, but not my MIL. Oh no. She wanted McDonalds. I’m not even kidding. First a fit at the zoo, then a tantrum because she wanted McDonalds. I told her that I wasn’t going to eat there and that I had lunch stuff for Squeaks at home. I also told her that I would fix her lunch at the house if she could wait. Apparantly she couldn’t. I had to go to the freaking drive-through at McDonalds for this woman. Who ordered a Happy Meal for herself. Not kidding.

Then when we got back, she moped around our house because she had forgotten her swimsuit and really wanted to swim in our pool. I offered to let her borrow some of The Hubby’s clothes to wear in the water, but she wouldn’t take them. Instead, she watched all of us swim, sitting at the edge and whining the whole time. It’s like having two freaking toddlers around here.

Help Us All! June 11, 2007

My MIL is in the early phases of menopause. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle this one. I seriously think she should be locked up until this is all over.

And to top it all? She’s writing her memoirs. Like anyone would want to read them. She thinks that she can get them published and become a bestselling author. I can’t wait to see what she writes about me. If anyone should write a book, it should be me, writing about her crazy ass.

Just Another MIL Story June 4, 2007

I bet you all thought my MIL must be acting better, huh? Well you were wrong. I just haven’t had the energy to blog about her! And in her defense, she’s been doing much better lately. Until this weekend.

Squeaks went to stay at my MIL’s house Friday night because we’ve all been so busy and they haven’t had much time to spend together. Plus these early Terrible Twos are making me insane, so I was ready for a break! So we dropped her off over there at dinner time with the plans that my MIL would just bring Squeaks home the next morning.

I was enjoying a lazy Saturday morning. I had slept in until 9:30 and then we were just lounging around in bed, enjoying the nothingness. The my MIL called. She was “just checking in with us”, but she also felt she had to mention one other thing: Squeaks slept in the toddler bed at her house.

About a month ago, The Hubby’s grandfather bought Squeaks a toddler bed to keep at my MIL’s house. He didn’t know that she wasn’t ready for it yet, but it was a good idea for when she’s older. After that purchase, we sat my MIL down and told her not to put Squeaks to bed in it until we give her the okay. She sleeps so well in her crib that we didn’t want to confuse her, we’re afraid she would wander around in the night and get hurt, and we wanted to be the ones to be there when she slept in a big-girl bed for the first time. Well you can see how well that speech worked.

So apparantly my MIL decided to take it upon herself to go against everything we asked and she let Squeaks sleep in the bed. Oh, but it was okay because she “barricaded the bed with stuffed animals and lawn chairs”. That’s safe. Thanks for making me feel so much better. I was so furious that I was shaking. I literally thought I could kill her at that moment. But instead I spent the next hour in the new Jacuzzi tub, trying to soak out my frustrations. It worked to an extent, but when my MIL got here, I was still tense. I’m still kicking myself for not handling things the way I should have. I was so mad when she got here that I just couldn’t talk to her and I let The Hubby take care of things. But now I know what needs to be said. Squeaks is not going to be allowed to go over there anymore until my MIL can respect our wishes. My MIL will be welcome to spend time with her, but not without one of us present. Isn’t that sad? We have to have visitation time for my child to see her grandma. But I can’t think of any other way that this will work. She keeps crossing the line and it’s becoming a safety issue as well as pissing me off.

Now it’s just a matter of actually having this talk with her. I would like The Hubby to do it, but I’ll do it if need be. I don’t really like confrontation, but I’ll make damn sure I get my point across. So be looking for the follow up post where my MIL is trying to make my life hell because I’m taking away here babysitting privileges.