houseguests

My in-laws arrived on Wednesday and are staying with us through Monday...

I expect that following this trip I will have some interesting stories from our interactions, because they are, in fact, interesting people. Every time I have the privilege of spending time with them I feel that I am on more of a National Geographic Explorer-type mission, than spending time with family.  They are so different from me, and even quite different from N. that I spend a lot of the time just marveling at their way of approaching life and those around them.  You see, it is almost as if they are unable to read the people around them,  they are unaware of the signals and cues that people send out all the time.

For example, I will be watching a TV show.  My body language and intense focus would indicate to anyone else that I am trying to follow the story, that I am into the program.  She will pick the WORST time to start talking about nothing, just because it strikes her.  I understand that a solution to this problem for most people would just be to get up and move to another TV... but see, then I am being anti-social. I am choosing TV over family. Despite the fact that we have been talking and being social (car rides, dinner, etc) for the past three hours. She does this during movies too.  It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

I am an only child (yes, I know that this means I have my own set of issues)...  I grew up in a fairly quiet environment.  I am used to a certain amount of down-time in my day.  My parents are not yellers, at all.  In fact, growing up my measurement of how "in trouble" I was, was gauged by how softly my parents were speaking to me, how long the very pregnant pauses were, and the deafening silence of the house before the punishment was handed down.  We can BE loud and boisterous, but it is generally in short doses and with specific reason.  As such, N. and I keep a pretty quiet house.  Not like library quiet, but we don't scream at Bean, we try to keep the volume down when folks, particularly our child, are sleeping, etc.

My MIL is loud.  She is compulsively loud.  I don't think that she is even aware of how loud she is. It isn't just her voice volume...  she bangs things around, she slams things down.  She sighs and huffs and even fidgets loudly.  She appears unable to modulate her volume.  Even around small children.  There is a pretty famous family incident witnessed by at least 5 adults.  Our niece, baby K, was a mere 2.5 months old.  My MIL put her on the floor underneath one of those kick toys.  MIL then began banging on the floor, screaming "Kick it Baby K!  Kick IT!" as if she was cheering on her granddaughter at a soccer game from the stands (yes, that loud).  The rest of us looked at each other in a kind of stunned stupor.  Who YELLS at an infant?

Yesterday morning was the first time that Bean has seen his Gree (MIL) since his baptism (about 4 months ago).  Within 2 hours of their re-acquaintance, she had scared the living shit out of him, literally.  He was in his high chair, showing off his newly acquired pincer grasp skills with his most favored of foods, the Cheerio. This was after an impressive display of crawling, standing and "vogueing" for the cameras. With little warning, MIL started banging on the try table and yelling for Bean to pick up a Cheerio.  "COME ONE BEAN, PICK IT UP! SHOW POPPU WHAT A BIG BOY YOU ARE!  PICK IT UP!"

Bean began to SCREAM bloody murder, as if to say "OMG, why is she yelling at me, what is she doing?  WHO IS THIS CRAZY LADY????????????"  It was so bad that the nanny couldn't calm him down.  I had to pick him up, hold him for 10 minutes and it took 3 renditions of "Itsy Bitsy" to get him to settle (I was working from home).  All the while he kept one eye on MIL.  I don't think that he wanted her to sneak up on him.

Later, as she recounted the incident to N, MIL insisted that she had no idea what could have set young Bean off.  She just shrugged and hypothesized he must have been ready for his nap. 

See what I mean... interesting.

Comments

[buffi]

That's what I heard Tuesday night! She must have been packing!

I will trade you in-laws any day of the week. Seriously.

[Kate W.]

OK, I just fround your blog via Deviant Woman's. I am sitting at work crying I am laughing so hard at your description of your MIL scaring the bean! I REALLY needed that laugh! Thanks! I will be back to read more.

[Dutch]

tpon- we tried to leave you comments on this post, but failed due to annoying internet/software issues. I cannot replicate what I said earlier, but in the sense that the desire to leave comments always arises from the shared experience or relation of said post to the commentator's life, let me just say this: I feel you.

[Eli's Mom]

Awesome...gotta love someone who yells at a baby and then gets confused when they freak out. I feel for you!