Strike One For The Evil Mother-In-Law

This one needs to recorded for posterity….

Mrs Levee was acting very strangely tonight. She ran for the phone every time it went off, and wouldn’t let me answer it. The last time, she took the call upstairs. I was with the kids, so I didn’t really pay much attention.

10 minutes later, she came down the stairs crying harder than I’d ever seen her cry before. First reaction was that something had gone wrong with the baby - that’s how upset she was.

Flashback, three weeks earlier . . .
While visiting her mother’s house, Mrs Levee was feeding Jay when her mother approached her. “I had a dream last night that you were pregnant” she started.

Mrs Levee pretended not to notice. Remember, because of the circumstances, no-one was to be told. Least of all her mother, who had widely publicised the last two pregnancies before we were ready. As a matter of fact, her mother was the primary person we were keeping the news from!

Anyway, Mrs Levee couldn’t avoid telling the truth. Apparently, when we were babysitting her little brother, he had heard her being sick and mentioned this at home. Her mother was a little upset by the implication that we couldn’t trust her, and that was really the last we heard about it.

Back to present day . . .
Needless to say, it was all too good to be true. Behind our backs, she was telling anyone that would listen. Mrs Levee, naturally noticed this before I did.

A week ago, one of Mrs Levee’s aunts mentioned returning a pram which we had loaned her. When Mrs Levee said she wasn’t in a hurry for it, the aunt glossed over by saying “Just in case any of your friends needs it.” Still, it unsettled her.

This morning, Mrs Levee was driving and came across a friend of her mother’s. Offering her a lift, one of the first things the woman said was, “Look at you out and about. You should really be taking it easy with the way you’ve been feeling.”

But that wasn’t all! Oh no, not only had she blabbed about the pregnancy, but the context! Quoting the mother-in-law friend: “Your poor mother. She’s already worried about your Grandad and your brother, and now she’s got this on her mind.” Knowing the woman as I do, this could only have come directly from Mrs Levee’s mother.

Reality Check.
For the uninitiated, my mother-in-law was a help after our first child was born and we lived in Belfast. This stopped abruptly when Jay was born in August 2003. Just when things got doubly hard for us, nothing. We were on our own.

And did things change with the revelations about this pregancy? Where is the rallying, supportive family? Nowhere to be seen. It seems this woman is happy for everyone to know how worried about us she is, but not prepared to do a damned thing to help.

Mrs Levee didn’t tell me until after the phone call from her mother. Apparently she didn’t want me firing off, and she wanted the opportunity to deal with this on her own terms.

Naturally, I’m disgusted. My family don’t even know yet. I don’t expect any real help from them, but then I know that they won’t be spouting crap about how worried about us they are.

I’m currently inclined toward murder (no, not really!), but I’d settle for never seeing my mother-in-law again. Ever. How dare she take something told in confidence and spread it everywhere? More importantly, without a single thought for how Mrs Levee would feel. She’s devastated, but she’s asked me not to interfere because it’s such a vital time in the pregnancy.

However, this may not be the last post about this situation. I’ve had 10 years of biting my tongue where that woman is concerned - not this time.