So we are not spending any part of the holiday season with my in laws. Not by our choice but theirs and so we are going to try to do things to keep the kids busy every weekend so hopefully they won’t really notice too much. The reality is they don’t spend time with them any other time of the year so the Christmas season should not be much of a change for them. Before my in laws had a biological grandchild they would pick up our kids and take them to look at Christmas lights and have dinner. That has not happened since biological grandkid came along 4 years ago.
My kids are smart they all caught on to this without needing it pointed out to them. My mother in law called the other day to tell us she was cutting us out of her holidays and not coming to our daughter’s birthday party and our oldest son Steve was home when she called. He heard me crying and came in my room and tried telling his Grandmother why he feels the way he does and she actually had the nerve to say that he was not smart enough to think those thoughts on his own. That we are putting the ideas in his head. First what kind of Grandmother says their grandkid is not smart enough?
When he continued to tell her that he was feeling like they don’t love him she said he was not feeling that either. I did try to remain calm but after an hour and a half of getting chewed out for asking for a separate holiday gift exchange with our kids and them I got tired of it. I said fine how would you like us to answer the kids the next time they ask me why you don’t love them? She never did answer that question other than saying that the kids would never ask that question.
How do you explain this to a kid? I wish there was a store where I could buy my kids new Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles.