More parental musings. Curious how they will behave

BlondeBeachBride08

Spin off from Kim's MIL thread.

I'm really curious to see how my in laws will react to this baby. Steve's brother has 2 kids, almost 2 and almost 3 y/o and MIL didn't take much interest in them until they were out of the baby phase. Now I'd say her interest is casual at best, however, I can't say how she is with them when it's not a big crowd. I can see her stepping back and letting the aunts and uncles play with them and waiting for 'her turn' when there aren't as many people around.

FIL acts like he has no interest in the babies but as soon as you hand him a baby he is totally smitten and it quite the baby whisperer. I think I have him figured out whereas my MIL is a much tougher nut to crack.

The other two grand kids live out of state so I'm curious how they will react to having a baby so close. Will they seek out contact or will we always have to schedule things... we shall see? I'm also curious to see if Steve's bro and SIL who live close to us will want to get together more often. My own bro and SIL will still be on their world tour until baby is about 8 months old so they're going to miss a lot

I can see my dad wanting to be around as much as possible though.  Now that my mom and sister have moved he's all by himself, and with my bro and SIL gone as well, it's really just him, me, Steve and Baby. He'd probably drive to the city every week to hang out with us if I opened the door. And I might!

Not sure how often my mom and Tor will be seeing the baby either. I promised to take the baby to visit but I can't imagine driving to KY more than once evert 3-4 months... I'm glad they're there and happy but selfishly wish they were still close so they could be a part of the baby's life.

ANYHOW. Feel free to chat about what you think your families will be like when the baby comes, or what you THOUGHT things would be like versus how they have actually turned out. 

ash.flea

I'm really interested to see how FIL reacts.  He isn't really very involved in his other grankids' lives all that much.  BUT, DH is definitely his favorite (and I'm his favorite DIL) and he lives closer to us than he does to any of the other kids.  He seems super excited about this baby.  I hope it doesn't cause any family problems if he's really involved in our LO's life and still continues to mostly ignore his other grandkids...

MIL is an awesome grandma already and I know she's going to be great.  She's the kind of grandma that is at every ballgame, every recital, etc.  And her grandkids are spread out all over the state!  She's always leaving work early to drive 100 miles to watch her grandson's football game or something like that.  G is going to be super lucky to have a grandma like that.

My mom I think will be here a lot just because she lives close and G will be her first grandchild.  But, she wasn't really involved in much of what we did and I'm not sure how she'll be with a grandchild.  It was always my aunt taking me to ball practices or amusement parks because my mom wasn't really into those sorts of things.  My mom was awesome at home, but she just doesn't really like to do much.  But then again, she was a single mom who worked a lot when we were kids, and now she owns her own business/sets her own hours, so things could be totally different now.  I'm really interested to see what kind of grandma she'll be.

I have no idea how my dad will be.  He's busy raising his own baby (my little sis is only 19 months old).  He lived in a different state than me growing up, so he wasn't really ever around for anything.  We're close now, though, and he really stepped up the last 10 years or so and has become a great dad.  No one in his family is very close, though, so I don't know how involved he'll be.  His dad (my grandpa) only lives about 10 miles from me and I only see him a few times per year.  And that's the way it is with pretty much all of my dad's family.  I usually talk to my dad once/week or so, and see him maybe once/month and I think it will probably be the same when G is here.

Buttercup29

I can't wait to see how much my ILs stick around during the year. They travel about half the year to FL and Canada. Wonder if having another grandkid and one close by will make them stay in town more.

I also wonder if my brother and his family will make more of an effort to come and see us. Since we told them that we were KU, they have been to visit and want to see us all.the.time (they are in GA). My SIL also calls and emails weekly which I have enjoyed. Hope that doesn't stop.

It should be interesting!