Saturday in our family is my mother-in-law’s day. It’s been that way for a year now. Even when I had my second child, my mother-in-law still wasn’t too interested in my grandchildren. Once a month she would come, give them little presents, sit for an hour or two, and then leave.
My daughters, naturally, did not recognize her. My eldest daughter, when she started talking, called my mother Grandma. Well, my mother often helped me, four days a week she was at our house. My daughters are small, it’s hard to do everything alone. And my mother-in-law isn’t interested. She lives her life.
But once she noticed that my eldest daughter did not call her grandmother, and they run to my mom. My mother-in-law decided that we do not communicate much, and set a day – Saturday – for our meetings. And the meetings were to be held at her home. She said she did not feel comfortable sitting at our place. So in the first week I sent my husband and the kids to her place. An hour and a half later they came back. My husband said they were just tired. Then I found out the real reason.
After a week, I packed up the kids and went to her house. I thought I could leave the kids for two or three hours and go get a manicure. But that wasn’t the case. She met us, handed the kids the gifts she had bought ahead of time, and that was it. Mother-in-law just sat in her chair, and told the kids how to play, what pencil to draw. Children are small, they do not understand what they are told. So I had to sit with them and play in front of my mother-in-law – like an actress.
Then it turned out that I also have to cook. She didn’t know what the kids could and couldn’t eat. We came home terribly tired. I thought it was the last time. Turns out it wasn’t. We go there every week and do the same thing.
Playing with the kids in front of my mother-in-law. Only now I take food with me so I don’t have to cook there. When I tell my husband that I’d rather stay at home, I’m less tired that way – he objects. You can not alienate children from their grandmother. So I have to go there every Saturday and pretend that everything is normal. I don’t want to spoil my relationship with her, but it’s not normal, is it?
