Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Crow... it tastes like chicken

Thanks so much to all of you who commented and left advice for me on my situation that I posted about. So in case you were wondering the outcome, here's a little update for you.

Prior to going to my family reunion, I did not approach my brother or his wife to make ammends or say my piece, etc. I talked it over with my husband and we just decided to let it go, because the bottom line is, no one in my family (or his) truly knows us, our situation, or how much work and effort is required to parent four kids under the age of 7. I did, however, get a call from my brother a few days before the reunion: Could I take his tent with me and set it up, and by the way... He and his wife are expecting their first child in February. (This is where I gleefully rub my palms together and secretly wish for a 2nd child to follow shortly after the 1st...)

So I went to my reunion with his tent in tow and had it pitched far away from mine so that in case my kids woke in the night, his sleep would remain undisturbed. See, aren't I so thoughtful?

I exercised diligence in keeping track of my kids and made sure that they stayed sorta out of trouble (for the most part) and that they did not 'bug' my SIL. A few times, mainly during meal time, I saw that my SIL had grabbed one of my kids... my 2 yr old once, and then the baby once. I asked her if I could take them from her and she said no, so then I promptly gushed over her and thanked her profusely for watching over them while I cooked/cleaned/served and immediately after I was through with the task, took my boy(s) from her...

As it turned out, the last night we were there, our entire family raided our site and we had a joint meal together. I took my younger boys to do diaper duty, and when I returned my bro and SIL were ticked off because they were doing the dishes and no one was helping. I apologized for being absent and immediately pitched in.

I've no idea if they got upset over other stuff, but if they did, I doubt I'll hear about it... Bottom line, I think things pretty much blew over and if it didn't, we played a good game of pretending it had.

7 comments:

Pokeyann said...

WOW! I must give you so many props for sucking it up! You handled yourself very admirably. I wouldn't have been so generous. So way to go!

Nichole said...

I'm with pokeyann! That sounds like a lot of work!

I don't know if I would have done the same in your shoes. I probably would have had major attitude. Then again, maybe not. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. After all family doesn't go away. . .

I, too, admire you!!

Celia Fae said...

Your SIL totally bugs. Sorry. She needs to get over herself.

This whole story is the reason why I'm glad some of my in-laws and repressed and don't share their real feelings. I don't want to know.

Anonymous said...

You are a goddess and your SIL needs to pop out a couple of babies in order to appreciate what a goddess you are.

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

You are amazing.

You really are.

Especially helping with the dishes when they criticized you last time for not taking care of your kids -because- you were helping with dishes and whatnot.

It really seems like you can't win with them!

ks said...

Oh my goodness!! My brother just found out this morning that they are expecting twins!! TWINS!!! I love Karma...!

Nichole said...

Whoa! I'm so interested to hear the "rest of the story" when it happens!