Let's redefine the meaning of 'help'

tiffyr0se · March 2009

My MIL wanted to come for the week to help while DH is out of town. Next time I will just do it alone, it will be easier. (Especially if you remember the fun of my mom coming to help).

It is not help if I have to make you breakfast and dinner everyday. Especially since I wouldn't actually cook if it were just me.

It is not help if I then have to clean up the dishes, load the dishwasher, take out the trash, etc.

It is not help if I have to take the baby whenever he cries.

It is not help if SIL comes for the day bringing her 1.5 year old who makes a big mess and drags out everything, then I clean it all up.

It is not help if no one really helps watch said 1.5 year old. I love my nephew, but I can't rein him in while trying to get my own down for a nap all by myself. What are you people doing?

It is not help if you don't get up early enough to take a morning shift, and you don't want to put him down at night. Plus of course you don't do the night shift.

It does not help if I now can't trust you to feed the baby. TWICE you have given him 11+ oz at a time. (She was also able to do this at 2 weeks!) I don't even know how she convinces him to eat that much. He won't eat more than 4-5 oz for me. I caught her yesterday trying to convince him to eat more when he had his mouth open. Then took the bottle away from her later in the day because I had just fed him, he didn't cry or fuss, she was just holding him and I think started to feed him out of boredom.

Sigh. I'm probably just really cranky because Cole has been up 3 times every night this week. I don't know why he's been up so much. Usually he sleeps through the night or gets up once. I'm exhausted.

LoriZ · March 2009

Wow. Yeah, that's definitely not helpful. It reminds me of when my FIL visited for a couple days when Allison was three days old. He sat on the couch with her while I cleaned the kitchen. When I saw him again a month later, he actually had the nerve to say, "Wow, you look a lot better than the last time I saw you!"