Hi everyone! I’m almost 7 months pregnant, and I’m already thinking of my birth plan.

With my first, I had my mother and husband present. To be fair, I figured I’d have my husband and mother in law present for our second, but… there are a few recent events that are making me have second thoughts about having her there.

Recently, my mother in law has been pushing boundaries. We just bought a new house, and were in need of toy storage in our living room. I found one of Facebook Marketplace for $40 (was going to buy new for $150). I was excited for the steak, so I shared it with her and my sister in law. Long story, short, she went into full panic mode that we were endangering my son with a used toy box. Without even seeing it, She wanted us to drill holes into it (has a large hole in the front so no suffocation), and install a soft close hinge (which it has). She then continues to send screenshots of children’s deaths associated with toy boxes.

This led to an argument over the phone that she was over exaggerating, and that she should trust myself and my husband to make those safety precautions. I let her know that I wanted to set boundaries about how she tells me and my husband to parent. She proceeds to tell me that she will always speak in the best interest of her grandchildren regardless of what I said.

That rubbed me the wrong way, so I’m worried she’s going to be just as overbearing during my labor 🥲 my sister in law didn’t have her present for her son’s birth because of the same concern, so that kind of validates my feelings.

I feel like since it’s so close, I’m going to end up hurting feelings saying no after hyping her up for so long to be there, and a piece of me is hoping she’s more helpful than an annoying during the whole thing… I feel conflicted.

If you got this far, thanks for listening to my rant.