I survived the relatives!

tamarar5

I managed to bite my tongue when:

1. Aunt started harping about E wearing a jacket and being sweaty. It was 50 out this morning when we left, I put on his jacket.

2. When same aunt started saying he wasn't warm enough after jacket was removed and his arms were cool.

3. When Uncle started critiquing DS's limited language.

4. When he tried to lecture me on what E *should* be doing.

5. When aunt and uncle both repeatedly tried to give E junk before he are lunch.

6. And when they them scolded E for not eating his whole sandwich.

7. When uncle made C cry hitting her with the frisby (really accident but easily could have been avoided), when he then got the frisby stuck in the tree and forced C to climb higher than she wanted too to retrieve it, and lastly, when she cried after getting stuck too high in said tree because she was scared. (Had to get my sister to climb up and help her back down)

8. When I wanted to take tired kids home and they guilted me into staying. (Mistake)

9. When aunt said fifteen thousand times that E didn't sleep enough during nap — no shit, I was right there and if you would have stayed out of the room, he might have slept for more than 25 minutes!

10. When they decided to make dinner reservations for 7pm. (Actually I did speak up and ask to go earlier on this one but we couldn't because my dad was golfing in a tournament and they weren't taking any reservations until the tourney was over).

11. When we were **still** waiting for aunt and uncle and loading up for said 7pm reservation AT 6:55PM when the place is a thirty minute drive away.

12. When Aunt and uncle told me I couldn't order a beer with dinner (I did anyway).

13, 14, 15, 16. Every time aunt have me the hairy eyeball as I sipped said beer. (Only drank half of a 12 oz bottle poured into a glass, and it was Miller Lite...)

17. When uncle told me it was illegal for me to give E a taste of beer. (I stuck my finger tip in my glass and rubbed his bleeding gums over his eye teeth. It's not like I filled his cup with booze).

18. Every time uncle scolded E for wanting more beer or reaching for my glass.

19. Any of the 12 times aunt told C to stop playing with my mom's cell phone when my mom gave it to her with a kid game in the first place.

20. When aunt told me she thinks I'm going to have the baby tonight so she can come.

Y'all I should be nominated for sainthood.

BUT... when I had to go back to parents house after dinner and pick up E's blanket and paci, and aunt insisted YET AGAIN that I make certain that DH calls them when I go into labor tonight, I said no.

I'm so glad I don't have to see these relatives again until next year!!!!!!!!! (Oh, as a refresher, this is the same aunt and uncle who demanded I tell them when and where our wedding would be happening before we had even picked a date — after I told them that we were eloping.)

But on the plus side, had a great visit with my grandma!

Gftf7

Sounds like quite the visit, but I'm glad it all went well!

tamarar5

Oh, I totally forgot the time when both Aunt and Uncle flat out refused to ride in the car with my sister driving. 

Because she didn't have her driver's license with her. (Apparently she actually GOT said license last week!!!! She's only 25.)

Meggiemuggins

Oh Lordy, the whole ordeal sounds exhausting!  I'm glad that you survived without throttling anyone

SummerLove21

Um...that makes me tired. I will nominate you for sainthood.

Puck1182

I think *I* had a high tolerance for bullshit from family, but I would NOT have been able to bite my tongue though even half of those. I second @SummerLove21's nomination. ;-)

tamarar5

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who was annoyed. I've reached the point where looking at people annoys me so I keep trying to bite my tongue simple because I can't tell if this is a legitimate reason to be upset or not. Of course, I know all of those things with my a&u were legit but I only see them once a year so I try really hard to keep it to my self. But it's a good thing DH wasn't there. He would have flipped his lid.

TarheelMama202

I'd probably be a little confused about Miller Lite being rubbed on a toddler's gums too. WAIT, WHAT?!

DublinMama

Sterling13 said:

Er, um, I, ah... I can't really get mad at them for side eyeing the super pregnant lady ordering a beer. Not that I am clutching my pearls over drinking a little when pregnant, but ordering it at a restaurant around a hostile crowd and not expecting to get side eyed? Wishful thinking.

byebyebooze said:

A lot of that sounds like them being concerned for the welfare of your children. Yea, it can get annoying, but I would find it hard to be pissed at people who wanted my kids to be comfortably dressed and not drunk in the womb/as toddlers.

TarheelMama202 said:

I'd probably be a little confused about Miller Lite being rubbed on a toddler's gums too. WAIT, WHAT?!

This and this and this.

ally2011

That all sounds really annoying, I am sorry. Good job on making it through!

ally2011

byebyebooze said:

A lot of that sounds like them being concerned for the welfare of your children. Yea, it can get annoying, but I would find it hard to be pissed at people who wanted my kids to be comfortably dressed and not drunk in the womb/as toddlers.

Feeding them junk, hitting them with a frisby, messing up sleep...."concerned with their welfare"...? And half a beer in 3rd tri is hardly making a child drunk....women in other countries have a small drink from time to time in 3rd tri on the regular. It is not something I would do personally, but I don't judge it. The gums thing....a little weird I guess, but again, not making a kid drunk. I don't care about any of this one way or another, but I did think this post was a bit overstated.

DublinMama

ally2011 said:

byebyebooze said:

A lot of that sounds like them being concerned for the welfare of your children. Yea, it can get annoying, but I would find it hard to be pissed at people who wanted my kids to be comfortably dressed and not drunk in the womb/as toddlers.

Feeding them junk, hitting them with a frisby, messing up sleep...."concerned with their welfare"...? And half a beer in 3rd tri is hardly making a child drunk....women in other countries have a small drink from time to time in 3rd tri on the regular. It is not something I would do personally, but I don't judge it. The gums thing....a little weird I guess, but again, not making a kid drunk. I don't care about any of this one way or another, but I did think this post was a bit overstated.

If you don't care about any of it why bother commenting on it? The fact is, everything or near to it was all within a realm of control. If the kids were overtired, they should go home. I'd feel more guilt over keeping my kids up and exhausted than I would about making out of towners put out by leaving. No one can force your kid to climb a tree. If she didn't want to climb any higher, tell the uncle she's a kid and she's scared and get a grownup to do it. And my parents try to ply my son with crap all the time. But I just say no, and that's that. Because I'm the mom so I get to say what my kid can have and what he can't. Yeah, it's family. But so is my son. I'm not getting into the beer thing at all. Except to say that water will take blood off gums as well as light beer. If you are in a restaurant, and you stick your finger in a beer and put it in your son's mouth, people are going to wonder WTAF. It doesn't matter how much or little he had or if he got hammered. It doesn't matter what other countries do. This is spoiled 'Merica where pregnant women drinking in public isn't a cultural norm and is going to get side eyed by 98% of the population. If you don't want the bs, don't bother having a beer.

ally2011

Lots of strong feelings on a vent post. Sometimes people just need to get it out. Hello, UOs, rants and FFCs....that's why they exist.

ally2011

I actually came back to delete this because it sounded snarky, I apologize for that.

DublinMama

You don't have DD anything bc it's snarky. Believe that the rest of us won't budge from our remarks.

ally2011

I don't like to be snarky on the interwebz....I try not to say something I wouldn't say in person....I am not always successful at that though. I am a pretty strong willed and opinionated person, so I probably have to work more at this than others do

ally2011

Sterling13 said:

And also? An internet forum is there for back and forth. Commentary. Conversation. If you just want to rant and have no one give you a differing opinion get a blog and turn off the comments. But if you put it out there on a public internet forum some people might disagree with you and state that they do. Otherwise it's a super boring place to be. You don't get to only have people who agree and support you respond.

Oh, I completely agree with this. On the above, I was only talking about myself, truly. I think forums can be hard because tone doesn't translate well a lot of the time.

ally2011

Gotcha.  I agree, once you put it out there, you don't get to control the responses.  But that's also true for the responders, and I still think that summarizing the complaints as just them caring about the kids' welfare by wanting them clothed properly and not drunk was a slight overstatement.