ArcaMax

Dear Amy: I'm 36 years old and have recently had my first and (most likely) only baby.

My baby means the world to me. For now, we've opted to have his daddy take a year off of work to take care of our little dude.

My mother-in-law is complaining that my husband isn't "sharing" our son with her. She seems to think she can send us away from our own son so that she can have her alone time with him, but several times when we've actually needed someone to watch the little man, she hasn't been available.

She even went as far as to say she'd forward us her schedule each week so we can coordinate, based on what's convenient for her. Amy, she's retired!

We don't need someone to watch him routinely; after all, my husband is home with him.

When we do have her watch him, she refuses to put him on his back alone in a crib to sleep, and the in-laws have a lot of inappropriate ideas about feeding. They seem to completely ignore the fact that I'm breast-feeding him. Due to my career in health care, safety is a top concern of mine.

I can't have her babysit him if she refuses to be safe. We tried politely asking her not to hold him while he naps, and she hasn't spoken to us since.

I don't want to keep my son away from his grandmother, but she refuses to respect our wishes. Plus, she won't take him when we need her to, nor does she include us as a family in her otherwise busy plans. I'm hurt that she only wants my son and doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with us.

-- Frustrated mama

Dear Mama: Your letter reminds me of the old joke about a restaurant: "The food was terrible, and in such small portions!"

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