Recently, my mom moved in with us. We live in a three bedroom house, the boys share a room, which is not as cramped as you'd think. They have the biggest bedroom in the house, it literally is takes up half the second floor. Then we have two smaller bedrooms, one of which my husband and I share with our daughter. She's only a year old, so we have at least another year before I'm comfortable enough for her to be in a room by herself. Hopefully by then we can get the attic situated. It needs paited, badly, and possibly rewired. But it would make another two bedrooms, which would be perfect.
Since my mom moved in, things have been a tad more stressful than they were before. That is putting it mildly, if I was really honest, I'd just flat out say she drives me batshit crazy. She is set her ways, and I am set in mine, and they are almost the total opposite of each other. She co-parents all the time, which drives me nuts, and quite often lets me know I'm doing things "the wrong way." I'm sure it comes from a good place, but she doesn't seem to understand how much fun it's not when somebody is constantly looking over your shoulder and correcting the things they deem wrong. I'll give you some examples of things that she does that makes me want to throw her off a bridge.
I have a usual routine for my day. I get up at six, start the coffee, read the paper and check the news to see what I missed. My oldest, who is usually up before I do, gets ready for school and will watch a TV show before he has to leave at 6:50AM. Around 6:30AM my mom will wake up and begin to get ready for work. Brian and I will talk before he leaves, and I'll lay out the clothes for my three other kids. He heads off to school and my mom comes down for coffee right before he leaves, and she'll say to me "Does he have all his books? Did he take a shower? Is he staying after school for anything today?" While my oldest is standing right there, instead of asking him, she asks me. Why does she do this? I have no idea, but for some reason it drives me nuts. Brian will leave and I'll wake up his brothers and sister and get them dressed. From 7:00AM until 7:45AM my mom is in and out of the bathroom upstairs as she finishes getting ready for work. Occasionally(depending on how cold it is outside) she'll yell down to turn the heat down that it's too hot. I rarely turn it on, and when I do it's never past 70. Then I wake my husband up at 8:00AM, and my mom comes downstairs to get another cup of coffee, bring down any dishes or glasses she had in her room over night, and proceed to ask me the same questions she did before about Brian, about Connor this time. Then she'll say something like "This is what you need to do today...." and proceed to list everything that I already know I'm doing, but she feels the need to inform me of it. Drives me nuts. Her and my husand leave about 8:20AM, she takes him to work and then goes to work herself. Throughout the day, she will call my house two to three times, and I usually don't answer the phone because I know it's more lectures on what I "need to be doing".
In the afternoon, Brian gets home from school around 3:30, then Connor gets home around 3:50, and for about fifteen minutes the house is nothing but chaos as they talk about their day, chase each other around the house and get an after school snack. I'll start dinner about 4:15 or so, depending on what I'm making and how clingly my daughter, Brigit, is. It will be ready about 5:30 or so, when my mom gets home from work. The kids will eat, I'll try to, and my mom will get something. She'll ask if I made coffee, to which I usually say "No, do you want me to make some." And she'll say no, meaning yes. Then she'll tell me I should get the dishes done now so I don't have to do them later. Then she'll ask if the kids have clean clothes for the next day, and tell me I should do a load of laundry. Donnie will get home from work close to 7:00PM, he'll get something to eat, drink some coffee, and usually he'll throw Brigit in the tub and get her to bed by 8:00PM. Then he'll bath Connor and Quinn, read them stories until they fall asleep. From 8:00PM until 9:30 or so is my down time. I get to do what I want for me in that time, usually. From the moment Donnie takes Brigit up to bed, until 9:00PM, when I have a Do Not Disturb programmed on my phone, my mom will call my house at least four times. Where is she when she does this? Upstairs, in her room, watching TV. She'll ask me to look something up for her, or she'll start in on her "Why don't you do this...." talks. It drives me nuts. There are other things that annoy me as well. For example, just recently, I went to the grocery store the other day, I had a list, my mom gave me a list of her own. No big deal. Well, one of the items was orange juice, and into the fridge it went. This morning, she went to get some and it was gone. It was only a half gallon, but she was actually pissed it was gone. "I only had two glasses of it." was her response. Well I'm sorry if my kids drank it, too. So, being the mature person I am, I told them(in front of her) that they could no longer drink the orange juice that I bought.
And her cat. You don't EVEN want to get me started on her cat. The damn thing has, on multiple occasions, jumped on top of the stove to get food from it, which my cats NEVER do. The other day, Quinn opened the fridge to grab the milk out, walked it to the dining room table(leaving the fridge door open), and Reeses got into the fridge and drug out a small chunk of ham she proceeded to eat. I was ready to kill her. She has peed and pooped on several blankets and clothing, which she stopped doing THANKFULLY. But when somebody is eating something, she'll jump up on the table or get in their face trying to get at it. Our couches don't look the greatest as it is, but she(on both couches) crawled under them and scratched the bottom part out so she could climb up inside them. DRIVES ME NUTS!!
Like I said, I know she might mean well, but she drives me nuts and she knows it. I wish she would stop co-parenting, I wish she would stop talking to me like I am a fucking five year old that is missing part of her brain. I wish she would let me do things the way I do them, especially when it comes to my kids. Just because it's not the way she would do things, does not make it the wrong way. They're not dead, they are not little deliquents, they do not get in trouble in school, and they are not evil and cruel, so I must be doing something right. Right??
Vent and rant over.
Have a good one folks, doesn't matter what that one is, just make it good.
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