My mother in law constantly refers to my children as "my babies" or "my children" or "my girl." I'm pretty secure in the fact that I, in fact, am their mother, but I still don't like it. Is this a normal thing to do? |
I think it is dumb to be offended by this. Be glad your children have loving grandparents and find a real problem to be upset about. |
agree |
I dunno, my mom does this and I hate it too! As does my sister. Perhaps because she wasn't the best mother it really grates. |
My MIl does it too and it irritates me though I just shrug it off. Now that daughter is 3 and obsessed with defining relationships (we have daily conversations along the lines of "I'm your daughter, you're my mother, you're my daddy, Larlo is my brother, etc) she corrects her.
The bigger problem is that my MiL will tell my daughter that she is going to keep her when we go home and it freaks my daughter out. Yet she somehow "forgets" inbetween visits and says it again the next time. |
+1 |
I think it's sad that you're sitting up at 2 am writing these dumb posts. Bored? Big exam tomorrow in Psych 101? I call troll. Ten minutes prior to this thread, you started this one:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/413961.page |
Common FTM annoyance. You can try to shut it down, but you will come off like a jerk no matter how you say it. Blame new mom hormones if you must. Or you can roll your eyes internally and ignore. There is going to be a lot of these things in the coming years. You pick your battles and remember that they are family and you can't get rid of them.
By the time your kid is 2, someone else will post this question and you'll get a good laugh because you used to feel this way but now you realize how silly it sounds. |
I am a teacher and I call my students my babies. Not to them or their parents, only other teachers or friends when I am speaking of them fondly. It's meant from a place of love. Try to see that. |
When I was in a particularly annoyed mood with my insufferable MIL, I snapped at her grating, "Where's my baby? Wheeere's my baby?" greeting to my son with, "YOUR baby is in the kitchen!" (brightly) "MY baby is right here! Would you like to hold him?"
God, I can't stand her, but usually I keep it successfully bottled up and just eat the rage in comfort food. |
It annoyed me too, until a coworker of mine who is a grandma herself told me that her DIL snapped at her for saying my babies. My coworkers face was so sad and said "I'm not an idiot, I know I didn't give birth to my grandson, but I just love him so much!" And after that it never bothered me again when my mil or mom said it.
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Man. Being a MIL is rough. |
Totally normal to find it irritating.
Do you have a good relationship with her otherwise? I think it's more irritating when it's just one more thing you find irritating. |
Normal to find it irritating, but pick your battles.
In my husband's family, people use "my" when they are spending time with the child. E.g. Grandma might say "Come sit on my lap and be Grandpa's girl for a while." Or if she's going to her aunt's house for a cousin playdate, "You're going to be Aunt Stacey's girl today." It probably confused her when she was little, but whatever. It's fine. |
Nothing wrong with it, she loves them.
Leave yourMIL alone. |