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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   30147 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 14, 2023

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She was mostly determined to take posed photos of the kids, culminating a very staged attempt at getting a video of her reading a book to all the kids, keeping two of them up past their bed times. I don't think she learned anything from the experience, though the video is hard to watch with all the crying from the younger two.

As someone with five kids (one special needs) and a mother in law who is similarly useless / kind of narcissistic, I was filled with second-hand rage reading this. Hang in there, that's really hard.

Yeah, I don't know why she thought the two month old would be interested in listening to her read... I think she has forgotten most of what it is like to have small kids. That thought gives me weird feelings. On the one hand, I know that one day most of my kids will be able to feed themselves breakfast and lunch, take their own baths, entertain themselves, and my role as a parent will be very different. I look forward to the role changing.

On the other hand, I want to be there for my kids when they have kids. If I forget what it's like, I will not be able to help as much. I'm already disappointed in Future Me's inevitable failure.

This was just the example that was easiest to convey. The most enraging thing was on a zoo trip. The zoo has a ski-lift-like ride where you can get a better view of the animals. My oldest, A, and second oldest, C, were tall enough to ride, but short enough that they needed a riding partner. My husband took C first, they got on the lift without a problem. I stayed with the younger two and the strollers.

My mom took A. While waiting for the chair lift to come up behind them, my mom kept trying to get A to look at me, yelling at me to take a photo, trying to get A to smile. The chair came behind them, my Mom sat on it easily, kept looking over my way trying to get me to photograph her. My daughter did not sit on the chair easily and was pushed forward. I kept shouting, "A! A!" helplessly behind three layers of steel gates and a long line. A ride attendant caught up and got my daughter on.

I was furious, muttered, "Stupid fucking woman cares more about photos than the life of her grandkid!" Mothers with young children heard me and glared. I was anxious, worried my daughter would fall off, pacing around until finally they came back around.

Not as bad, but we took my MIL with us on a very expensive kids vacation to a certain place in Florida.

It was amazing how negative my MIL was most of the time and how little she seemed to want to interact outside of taking “photos.” Her grandkids were having the time of their lives but she seemed incapable of connecting. I just don’t get it.

The modern west has rejected any sort of religious or moral system and replaced it wholesale with individualist, materialist nihilism. It shouldn't be a surprise that many people act this way.

Mothers with young children heard me and glared.

Is this meant to be a 'men are idiots and bad parents' thing? Why wouldn't the mothers be on side?

One can quite easily tell that you’re responding to a woman by the writing style.

And also the fact that /u/OracleOutlook mentioned that she was on maternity leave in a previous post in this subthread.

And also that on that same post the story began with ‘and my husband took c first’.

Look at all the Sherlocks, next someone is going to point out my flair is pink and I interjected my emotional state in most paragraphs.

I'm a woman. People glared because I cursed in front of their small children.

I am not a smart man.

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