So my mother in law is visiting us and staying with us in our house. My MIL is notorious for being really high maintenance, unpredictable and difficult. She will never eat what I cook because she does not eat vegetables, we end up having to order food and we always got the bill. She always finds reasons to over stay her welcome and expects us to wait on her and clean up after her.

(A little backstory, she struggled with health issues and mental health issues while my husband was growing up and at different times in his life she lost custody of his younger brother Matt who was adopted by a Christian couple. Supposedly... The couple who adopted his brother were very strict and did not allow him to watch tv or play with toys. She is a terrible historian and because of her mental issues)

We try to keep the TV off when Henry is awake. The American Board of Pediatrics recommends no screen time before the age of two and so we watch TV while our son naps. I asked my husband to back me on this because his family spends time together solely by watching tv or scrolling on their phones. We asked that while our son is awake and in the living room if we could keep the TV off. She begrudgingly agreed, but said “y’all aren’t going to do the same thing that happened to Matt are you?” My husband said he didn’t understand what she was asking. She clarified that we aren’t going to traumatize our son by not allowing him to watch any tv or that we aren’t going to be controlling, strict, hyper-religious zealots. I was so annoyed. I couldn’t believe she was comparing us not allowing our 7 month old TV time to her son who has had issues his whole life due his tumultuous upbringing. I was infuriated. Not to mention that the woman was a terrible mother. My husband does not have a single happy memory of his childhood. He never met his father, he was subjected to homelessness, his mother’s numerous suicide attempts and general neglect. I still cannot believe that she would criticize the way we parent our son. I tried to explain to her our reasoning for our parenting choices and she just kept bringing up how traumatized Matt still is. It took every ounce of self control not to say, “woman YOU are the reason your son is traumatized, not a lack of watching television!!!”

She was supposed to leave this morning but informed us last night that she is just feeling too ill to make the drive. So, she is still at our house trying to sleep off a migraine. SHE ALWAYS DOES THIS. We try to limit her time visiting because it is really stressful and she always ends up needing to stay longer for one reason or another.

That is all, end of my rant! 😫