My mother-in-law and penny-pinching are two sides of the same coin. She is convinced theres no point buying anything new for a baby when other relatives have older children and can pass down their old clothes. I think you can imagine what tenth-hand outfits look like. Thats why I don’t want this pile of cast-offs.
In the beginning, when we rented a flat, my mother-in-law kept out of our way. But once we bought our own home, she took control of our renovation. She insists that her mate will do the tiling, while another friend will handle the electricsno need to hire professionals, apparently.
The quality of these experts is atrocious, and I have no interest in having them work on our house. Ive already seen how these kinds of renovations turned out in my mother-in-laws place. Shes always tripping over the uneven floor. When I refused, she called me materialistic and accused me of squandering money.
When we wanted to replace the furniture, the whole circus started again. She began ringing every family member, trying to gather old sofas, sideboards, and threadbare rugs. When I declined, she scoffed, saying wed end up in the gutter with that attitude.
My husband stood up for me. We earned enough to furnish our house decently. We went ahead and chose everything ourselves, no matter how much she huffed and puffed.
Let me be clearI’m no snob. My sister often gives me clothes she no longer wants, but they’re always good quality and well looked after. I dont want to take anything just because its free. Id rather buy a few nice things for our baby that will be comfy and look lovely.
Why are you wasting money? The family’s full of children! my mother-in-law grumbles.
I knew most of these clothes had changed hands a dozen times. When I saw them, I realised theyd be barely suitable for cleaning the floor. Stained, patched, full of holes, missing buttons, and fastenersutterly useless.
Another relative brought over a cot from her cousin. It didnt even have side rails, so she made her husband fix it. We ended up taking that family heirloom to our cottage and buying a proper crib.
Oh, look at these rich folk! You throw money about now but youll settle down once youre on maternity leave. Then youll wish youd listened to me instead of sticking your nose up! my mother-in-law still won’t drop it.
Honestly, I dont care if shes offended or not. I have every right to safeguard my childs wellbeing. Even if we run into money problems, I know my own parents would support us. We wont be destitute without her cast-offs.
