02/10/2011 11 weeks and 1 day
My mother in law watched Jackson yesterday for a few hours so I could get out. I didn’t really need to go anywhere and I didn’t feel like going out but I did need to get formula so I thought I would take her up on it.
This seems to be a mistake every time I do it.
My MIL has her own style of parenting which is mostly sitting on the couch watching Fox News under a blanket with the dog at her feet. She doesn’t put Jackson down for a nap but lets him snooze on her or as she did yesterday on top of the blanket on the couch with the dog lying on his legs. Now I love my dog and want him and Jackson to be best friends. But right now while Jackson is small and very fragile I want Bailey to learn boundries. To know that Jack is the boss not Bailey. She told me that Jack woke up screaming and that she thinks Bailey’s weight on him may have been cutting off the circulation to his legs. Lovely.
She also layed him on my scale to weigh him, dims the lights in my bedroom, put him in clothes 2 sizes too big (that were in the bottom drawer of the dresser under a stack of clothes), and one time thought about letting him taste tomato sauce. Now you would think maybe she doesn’t know how to take care of a baby but she is a nurse and has raised 4 kids. Yet she feels the need to tell me that his big bird stuffed animal has eyes that Jackson may pull out and swallow (not that he can even play with this toy yet) and that honey is poisonous to infants (not that the honey was anywhere near the baby it was next to the tea bags because I use it in tea, not the babies food!!).
I feel badly but this is starting to worry me. I appreciate all she does and she is his grandmother but, she doesn’t listen to me. When I tell her he’s just been fed she feeds him anywa. When I tell her he probably needs a nap she ignores me. I’m not sure how to deal with her but, for now I have too. So I just bite my tongue harder and harder. One of these days she’s going to look over and see me bleeding at the mouth.
My Mother in Law was the same way. It caused so much anxiety for me I would freak out on Mike every time a visit was over. She second guessed every decision we made, every little thing. I love, love my mother in law, but she hadn't been around a baby since Mike was one. It didn't get better until my brother and sister in law had twins when Peyton was 2. Then she had someone else to bug and now my sister in law has to deal with it, lol.