Mother-In-Law Refuses To Hold 2-Month-Old Granddaughter Because She Wasn’t Dressed In The Outfit She Bought Her For Thanksgiving
The outfit was wildly inappropriate for a newborn.
Katrina Elena | Shutterstock For one woman, her baby’s first Thanksgiving was one to remember — and it was all because of her mother-in-law’s tantrum.
According to the new mom, her mother-in-law made a fuss after she noticed that her granddaughter was not wearing the outfit she had gifted her parents, hoping that they would dress her in it for their Thanksgiving celebration.
The mom believed that the outfit was wildly inappropriate for an infant and ended up tossing it in the garbage. Her mother-in-law threw a fit and accused her of being a “killjoy.”
A mother-in-law threw a fit because her infant granddaughter was not wearing the outfit she had sent her for Thanksgiving.
Sharing her story to Reddit, the first-time mom recalled that fateful Thanksgiving with their 2-month-old daughter Daisy.
“She’s the first grandchild on either side, so obviously everyone is all over her,” she wrote. As Thanksgiving approached, both sets of grandparents sent the baby outfits that she could wear for the holiday.
“My parents gave me a little onesie and an overall dress with a turkey on it. It was pretty cute,” the woman wrote.
morrowlight | Shutterstock
The mother-in-law bought a onesie for her granddaughter that included an inappropriate adult reference.
“My mother-in-law on the other hand gave us a onesie and a pair of pants, and the onesie said ‘I’m here because mom's turkey got stuffed.’”
The mom was so appalled by the inappropriate reference to the onesie she ended up throwing it away.
When the woman and her husband visited her in-laws on Thanksgiving Day, her mother-in-law immediately noticed that Daisy wasn’t wearing the outfit she had sent her and asked why.
“I tried to dodge the question because I didn’t want to cause a tense situation, but my mother-in-law kept badgering me about it, not even wanting to hold Daisy because she wasn’t wearing her outfit,” she wrote.
After a very tense Thanksgiving celebration, the woman received a text from her mother-in-law claiming that it was “rude” that she hadn’t dressed Daisy in the outfit she had sent her.
The mother-in-law continuously demanded to know why her granddaughter wasn’t wearing the outfit, so the mom decided to be honest with her.
“I finally told her it was because I didn’t want to put my 2-month-old in a shirt that had a sexual innuendo on it, and looking back at photos of her first holiday, I didn’t want that outfit involved,” she wrote.
Her mother-in-law called her "rude” and a "killjoy."
“I feel like I’m the [expletive] because I could have just humored her for an hour and not have documented the outfit and that it was a gift,” she wrote.
Even though her husband agreed not to put Daisy in the outfit his mother had sent, believing it was inappropriate, she still felt guilty.
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There's a reason why the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law drama stereotype has become a societal norm. Research from 2022 found that 75% of married couples have a strained relationship with an in-law, and unsurprisingly, the majority of them are daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relations.
That doesn't mean the mom in this scenario is wrong, however. In fact, experts would probably agree that the mother-in-law not only has a weird sense of humor but is also exhibiting signs of being controlling.
Lisa Gordon, a therapist from the Family Institute at Northwestern University in Illinois, told Newsweek, “I would consider a mother-in-law controlling if she exerts her decisions on the couple or their children in ways that negatively impact the couple or children.”
Okay, so maybe bad taste in onesies didn't exactly negatively impact little Daisy, but it did negatively impact her mom. She was made to feel uncomfortable at a family gathering, was forced to defend her actions, and ultimately struggled with guilt that was unwarranted.
Most people agreed that the mom did not have to dress her baby in an inappropriate outfit just because her mother-in-law expected her to.
“Your kid isn’t a billboard for jokes your mother-in-law thinks are funny but you don’t,” one Redditor commented.
“She's YOUR kid, you are allowed to have her wear or not wear whatever you choose. You should tell her [the woman’s mother-in-law] that she can go ahead and have another kid, then she can dress that kid up in whatever vulgar phrases make her cackle,” another user wrote.
“That’s really weird for parents to give their grandchild a onesie that translates to I’m here because of all the unprotected sex my son and daughter-in-law had,” another noted.
Even if the outfit was cute, the mom had the right to dress her baby as she pleased. Every parent has their own style preferences, and they may differ from the rest of their family.
Here's hoping Grandma can put the past aside and focus more on her relationship with Daisy rather than her daughter-in-law's sense of fashion.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.