Am I being ungrateful?
Again, let me start by saying that I love and respect my mom. Since knowing that I’m pregnant she’s been talking about all of the things that she’s going to buy. I have very politely been hinting that I don’t want her to buy a lot of stuff. I’m sure that sounds ridiculous, but my mom is not financially responsible. She has no savings at all because of her shopping habits. She is leaning toward being a hoarder. I do not say that lightly. She has a huge storage unit that is just piled with stuff. Her townhome is ridiculously cluttered. You can get in and get around, but there are always random boxes or bags of things that she buys all over the place. Back to the point, she bought a table and chair set for the baby when I was 14 weeks along because it was on sale at her favorite discount store. I’m not going to need that for at least another three years. After this, I directly asked her please don’t buy any other big things for the baby. I told her that I didn’t want her to spend so much money this way, and that I didn’t want all of the stuff at my house. A week later, she tells me that I hurt her feelings, so I apologized and tried to explain my reasons. She didn’t understand and basically said that she would rather buy stuff on sale to save me money, and also that she didn’t care that she has no savings. I told her that I’d rather wait until I needed the stuff to buy it. About a week later (two days ago) we talked and she said that no one was going to know what to get us because we bought a lot of the big stuff ahead of time. I told her we were going to make a registry and it would be mostly small things. She asked if we had a bassinet already. I told her that we didn’t, but we were going to pick one for our registry. She said that she would keep an eye out for one. I said okay thinking that she would tell me about it if she saw one. The next day, She calls and tells me that she bought one at the discount store. She tells me how great of a deal it was and how she’s so excited and sent me a picture from amazon. I was out so I just said thank you and got off the phone. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I did not want this bassinet. I want to choose the bassinet that I use, and I want to get it new. I know that may sound bougie, but this is my first child and I want to have a say in the big things. Also, if there’s something wrong or missing from the bassinet I can’t return it to the discount store. I talk to her later that night about the situation. Before I ever said that I didn’t want it she told me that if I didn’t want to she could just give it to her friend who is having a grandchild in December. I said if you have someone else to give it to that works for me. I would kind of like to pick out my own bassinet for my registry and get it new, so I can return it if something is missing. She then became pretty defensive and started talking about how she opened it and everything was there and it is new. I know she didn’t look through the assembly directions and count the pieces because I’ve seen her shop at this store (I didn’t say that to her). She then said, fine I’ll sell it to my friend then because her daughter needs everything. I was like that’s great. Then she says people who have baby showers don’t get to pick what they get. I told her that they do if they create a registry, and people who buy an off registry gift aren’t usually buying something as significant as a bassinet. She didn’t appreciate that comment, so she said that she’s not buying anything else for the baby. This was intended to be a threat, but I was literally like that’s fine. I genuinely don’t want her to just keep buying things. She bought a lot for my sister with my nephew because my sister was 18 at the time. I also feel like it’s important to note that my mom threaten to take everything back from my sister (the crib, stroller, clothes, toys, bouncer, etc.) after a disagreement when she was about eight months pregnant. I am 27. I’m married, own my home, and I’m set up in my career. I don’t NEED her to buy everything. I just want her to love my child and not hold anything she buys over my head. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I also want her to respect my choices.
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