also a separate post to say Iām really grappling with my relationship with my mum since becoming a mother. itās 100% more to do with me than her, sheās objectively a good person and I love her endlessly!! all of that to say, here is a list of my gripes with her:
1. She is an extremely anxious person and vocalises her anxieties to help herself deal with them. Unfortunately this then gives me new things to be anxious about š
2. She keeps saying things and then just like, not following through. For example, āwhat size is Maya, Iād like to get her some clothesā. I respond with āoh that would be lovely, sheāll be in this size nextā. Do the clothes ever materialise? No. In the same vein, when I was freshly postpartum āoh weāll send you some meals from Cookā. never happened. To be clear! I donāt care about getting Stuff from her, I have never asked for anything. Itās that she says sheās gonna do something and then it justā¦doesnāt happen.
3. When they come down sheāll make backhanded comments about not having seen Maya for ages, that Maya wonāt recognise her or that because Iām breastfeeding she can only bond with me (???) but will never then ring me to arrange something. Or, itāll be āweāre going for brunch with your cousin an hour and a half away from you, you should come, they want to meet the babyā. mind you, this cousin doesnāt want to meet the baby enough to contact me at all.
4. More empty promises, āoh weāll come over and cook for you when youāve had the babyā. To be fair, this did happen. Once. we had to do all of the cleanup after, and obviously had to clean our house before/after they came. Thereby generating more work. When they were here there were no offers to do anything other than hold the baby. theyāre coming for a week in July and tbh I am dreading it, which sounds bad. It is bad!!
Actually with that last one I have to say, everyone except for Adamās mum has been absolutely useless. She has done our ironing since Maya was born š but every single other family member of ours has either
not bothered to contact us, or
come over just to hold the baby and been waited on hand and foot.
Itās kind of insane. And I know not everyoneās family is like this, because some of my NCT friends have had family clean their whole houses, cook a meal a day, the whole shebang. A Proper Village. so it does exist, just not over here it would appear.