In-Law Vent

Okay, yesterday we saw DHs parents and he brought our 20 week sonogram pics to show them.

The reaction was strange, IMO. His mother said, no, we don't want to see those now ?! But he pulled them out anyway, and they barely gave the pics a glance! They just said you really couldn't see anything, and DH tried to point out the arm, nose, etc., and they just pushed them away.

What is up with that? I've never seen a reaction like that in my life! Even if they are not interested in them, couldn't they fake a little interest for our sake, esp. DH? He is really excited about this--it is our first child and their first grandchild. I wish I had asked directly why they didn't want to see them, but I was shocked actually. Didn't know what to say.

Am I being too critical, or was this an unusual response?

thanks for letting me vent!

Re: In-Law Vent

That is very strange. See if your DH could ask them about it.

Re: In-Law Vent

That is very strange, I would call them out on it and find out why they did that. That would irk me to no end!

Re: In-Law Vent

that is a little odd. For some reason I was afraid people would not be excited, but to actually have gotten that response, and from my IL would bother me too. Did you talk to your DH about it?

Re: In-Law Vent

That stinks!! I do know (sort of) what you're feeling. I forwarded my best friend's level II pics to my mom and included my MIL, trying to be nice. Apparently she forwarded it to DH and wrote "My, what a beautiful fetus ."

I haven't really wanted to show her ours, though I can't tell DH that, b/c I know she's thinking the same thing now even if she knows enough not to say it. For some reason, some people think that all we know and can see now isn't good and they want no part of it. Though it doesn't excuse their reaction, maybe it'll help you deal with it a little better

Re: In-Law Vent

Are they superstitious?

Sorry you got a lukewarm response

Re: In-Law Vent

sounds very strange to me!

are they superstitious?

Maybe they are afraid that something may happen?

Some customs, like jewish for ex, don't really talk about the baby - or buy anything for it- until the baby arives. Could that be it?

Re: In-Law Vent

Thanks for the replies! I guess I wanted a reality check--I thought it was very strange and DH did too, though he was hurt yesterday, and I didn't want to talk about it so much with him at the time. It would be good to talk about it today.

They are not superstitious people at all so that's not it, but they are rather reserved people, and I am thinking they just aren't that interested in having a grandchild. Which is really a big shame since they are our only family who live close to us. Their response when we told them we were expecting was lukewarm also, and they haven't asked us many questions about the baby. They do ask us lots of questions and show interest in other things in our lives, just not this.

It was especially irksome since we had just spent a good chunk of time talking about MIL's cat . Couldn't they devote 5 minutes to their only grandchild? It was almost as if we had pulled out nude photos of ourselves to show them--that's the kind of reaction we got.

I was upset for myself as well, but I really could have smacked both of them for making DH feel bad.