The time I hid from someone...

This is actually quite sad.  My husbands parents went through a nasty divorce whilst I was pregnant with my eldest daughter, and naturally we got caught in the crossfire.  The relationship between us and his mom was strained, to say the least, for some time, although we were still seeing her occasionally and she came to see her first granddaughter in the hospital.  Things went from bad to worse when there was a huge confrontation between parents and children at the old family home, and we eventually cut contact with his mom. 

Shortly afterwards she visited our home whilst my husband was at work.  By nature I am not a confrontational person, and I couldn't face an argument with her, so I pretended to be out.  The problem was that I had a very young baby, plus my friend and her two toddlers in the flat, so I'm fairly sure we weren't quiet enough to make her think I was out.  I've often felt guilty about this ever since.  While it is true she was not a very nice person back then, in hindsight I can see why, and I completely understand why she was bitter and why she acted the way she did.  With the knowledge and  life experiences I have since gained, I can see that I hadn't looked closely enough at her situation to have given enough consideration to our reactions, but at the end of the day it was his parents and his decision, and I had enough to cope with having just had a baby.



The sad part is I am now extremely close to my mother-in-law, in fact I would say I am closer to her than to my own mother (another sad fact - but that's another story).  We made amends when my eldest was four, by which time my middle daughter was three, and she had missed out on all this time with her granddaughters. 

My mother in law was at the birth of my youngest daughter, who is now seven, and she has been a wonderful nanny to all three of them, and I think we have made up for lost time.  It still makes me sad to think of the lost years though, which I have told her (usually after a couple of glasses of red wine!) 

It is lovely being close to your mother-in-law, especially when she sticks up for me when HE is being difficult!