“Perfect. Sophie usually settles after lunch.”
I hesitated.
“Daniel?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Lauren tell you she sent me something?”
A pause.
“What did she send?”
“A list.”
“What list?”
“Rules for meeting Sophie.”
He gave a short laugh.
“She made an actual list?”
“With 14 rules.”
“Fourteen?”
“Daniel, I’m not upset about washing my hands or not kissing Sophie.”
“Okay.”
“But I think you should read the whole thing.”
“Send it to me.”
“I don’t want to cause an argument.”
“Mom.”
His voice changed.
“Send it.”
I forwarded the document.
For about a minute, neither of us said anything.
I could hear him scrolling.
Then he said, “The no-kissing thing is normal.”
“I know.”
“And no pictures online, yes.”
“Daniel.”
Another pause.
He was still reading.
Then:
“What the hell?”
I closed my eyes.
“You reached the end.”
“She sent you this?”
“Yesterday.”
“She didn’t show me.”
“Don’t fight with her because of me.”
“Mom, she specifically wrote ‘Daniel’s family.'”
“I know.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means us.”
“No, I understand the words. I’m asking why she thinks my parents need all these rules and not hers.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Daniel, she just gave birth. She’s probably overwhelmed.”
“Being overwhelmed doesn’t explain this.”
“She may feel safer with her own mother.”
“That’s fine.”
His voice became sharper.
“I understand her wanting Denise around. Denise helped during the pregnancy. She was there after the delivery. I get that.”
I stayed quiet.
“What I don’t get is why Paul’s allowed to kiss Sophie while my mother is apparently not even allowed to call her ‘my girl.'”
Then he said, “Don’t leave tomorrow until I call you.”
“Daniel, it’s okay. Let us just come.”
“Please, let me handle this.”
He hung up.
Richard was watching me.
“I take it he didn’t know.”
“No.”
About an hour later, Daniel called again.
His voice sounded exhausted.
“What happened?”
“I talked to Lauren.”
“And?”
“It’s not good.”
I sat down.
He told me he had asked Lauren why she sent the document without discussing it with him.
Lauren said she knew he would “water it down.”
Daniel asked what that meant.
She told him he had always been too worried about hurting my feelings.
Then he asked why her parents were exempt.
Lauren said, “Because I trust them.”
Daniel apparently stared at her.
“Based on what?”
“They respect me.”
“My parents haven’t disrespected you.”
“Not yet.”
When Daniel repeated those words to me, something inside me sank.
So I wasn’t being judged for anything I had done.
I was being punished in advance.
Daniel continued.
“I asked her about the blanket.”
I looked over at it.
“What did she say?”
“She said if she makes exceptions, people stop respecting boundaries.”
I laughed once.
It wasn’t funny.
Daniel sounded angry now.
“I told her a blanket made by a baby’s grandmother isn’t a threat to anyone’s boundaries.”
“Daniel, please don’t make the blanket the issue.”
“It’s not the blanket.”
“I know.”
“I asked her to keep the actual health rules. Wash hands. No kissing. No visitors if sick. No social media. Fine. I even said visits can stay short.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“She said no.”
I frowned.
“No?”
“She said her parents are different.”
I said nothing.
“I asked, ‘Because they’re yours?'”
His voice cracked slightly.
“She said yes.”
That hurt more than the list.
Because now the problem wasn’t hidden behind careful language.
Daniel continued.
“Mom, don’t come tomorrow.”
My chest tightened.
“All right.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re pretending it doesn’t hurt.”
I looked at the freezer meals lined up on the counter.
Richard had already packed diapers in a tote bag.
The little blanket was still folded beside me.
“Of course it hurts.”
“I know.”
“But Lauren just had a baby. I’m not going to make this worse.”
“I am not inviting you into my house under rules designed to humiliate you.”
I swallowed.
“You shouldn’t be choosing between your wife and your mother.”
“I’m not.”
“It sounds like you are.”
“No. I’m choosing not to participate in something I think is wrong.”
His voice softened.
“You’re my family too.”
After we hung up, I cried.
I just sat at the kitchen table and cried quietly while Richard moved the grocery bags off the counter.
He sat beside me.
“He’s trying to do the right thing.”
I wiped my face.
“I can still hate that doing the right thing means I don’t get to meet Sophie tomorrow.”
Richard reached for my hand.
That night, apparently, the argument at Daniel’s house got worse.
Lauren told her mother what happened.
Denise called Daniel.
He told me about it two days later.
According to him, Denise said, “Your wife just gave birth, Daniel. Why are you making this about your mother’s feelings?”
Daniel answered, “I’m not. I’m asking why your family gets privileges mine doesn’t.”
Denise said, “Maybe your mother should ask herself why Lauren doesn’t trust her.”
Daniel finally snapped.
“Based on what, Denise? Mom offered to help with a baby shower? She bought clothes? She asked if we needed meals?”
That was when Lauren started explaining the things I had supposedly done.
Months earlier, I had told her Daniel loved being swaddled as a baby.
She took it as unsolicited parenting advice.
I had offered to help organize the shower when Denise hadn’t responded to a group chat for several days.
Lauren thought I was trying to take over.
I bought Sophie two outfits that weren’t on the registry.
Apparently, that meant I didn’t respect instructions.
I had asked twice during the pregnancy whether she wanted help after the birth.
Lauren felt like I was pressuring her.
I remembered all of those moments.
None had been arguments.
She had smiled.
She had thanked me.
She had never told me I was making her uncomfortable.
Daniel asked her why.
Lauren finally said she’d been reading stories online about overbearing mothers-in-law.
Her friend Kayla had told her to “set boundaries early.”
Popular Posts
→- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Recently Viewed
Stories you read recently will appear here.
