MIL more of a hindrance than a help - what would you do?

My Mother in Law is a lovely woman with such a kind heart and loves her grandchildren so much.

I like her and don’t mind spending time with her (in small doses!).

She is SO loud and has no awareness (can’t read a room) and since having my youngest baby (I have 3 kids) she keeps on assisting on coming over to ‘help’ every Tuesday for the WHOLE day.

But she doesn’t help 🙈 her personality is choatic, she is clumsy and just adds to my stress.
She tries to help bless her but ends up making a mess, it is impossible to get my baby to sleep because she is so loud and doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal when she wakes the baby.

I have tried in subtle ways to put a stop to it but because I know her intentions are good, I don’t want to offend her.

What would you do?

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I would straight up let her know you'd prefer not to do Tuesdays any more. Just say it's disrupting routines and you feel like you don't need that help any more.

Offer a different way to help. Like could your oldest go to her house on Tuesdays and have special Nana days?

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I would tell her she can come between this and this hours of the day when your baby is not in a sleep schedule. Food way to compromise

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Fill your schedule with free classes and meeting friends so her time with you all is more in limited slots 🤣

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Just tell her you don’t need help lol

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I’m with , redirect her. Try up think of something that would actually be helpful, or not unhelpful, and ask her to do that.

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My MIL will watch my daughter for me occasionally while I work and they just watch TV all day 🤦‍♀️ and she leaves crap everywhere, so I feel that. Also feel not wanting to offend, nothing worse than not getting along with the in laws.

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When people want to help me I come up with a list of what would be helpful and give them tasks that would genuinely help.
My mom always wants to do big projects when she visits and I have to redirect her, because its either not helpful or its something I feel I need to do myself - like organizing our storage. So instead I ask her to help with laundry or basic cleaning that takes something off my plate, potentially freeing me up to do tge larger tasks that I don't want her to do.

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From personal experience, you’re probably not going to get out of seeing her at least once a week. However, you need to give her a specific timeframe when she comes. One that works for both of you. Limit the amount of hours she is in your house. If you have to make up an excuse. When she is there, designate an area of your home which is just for you and baby. For example, your bedroom or the nursery. She has no right to be in your bedroom…then you can say “oh, look baby is soo tired awww do you want a nap with mommy?” And just take baby away and lay in your room for however long you need. You have every right to lock your bedroom door. If she tries to come in, knocks for no important reason, that is crossing a boundary and you have every reason to make that known (in a nice way) if it continues then you will unfortunately have to express frustration or better yet get your husband involved.

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MIL more of a hindrance than a help - what would you do?

My Mother in Law is a lovely woman with such a kind heart and loves her grandchildren so much.

I like her and don’t mind spending time with her (in small doses!).

She is SO loud and has no awareness (can’t read a room) and since having my youngest baby (I have 3 kids) she keeps on assisting on coming over to ‘help’ every Tuesday for the WHOLE day.

But she doesn’t help 🙈 her personality is choatic, she is clumsy and just adds to my stress.
She tries to help bless her but ends up making a mess, it is impossible to get my baby to sleep because she is so loud and doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal when she wakes the baby.

I have tried in subtle ways to put a stop to it but because I know her intentions are good, I don’t want to offend her.

What would you do?

Avatar

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