“How to Deal with a Meddling Mother-in-Law After Giving Birth: A Tale from Maud’s Nachtboek”

Maud just gave birth to their baby boy Liam! Everything went well, but Maud still has to get used to her new life as a new mother. And she has that too, a meddling mother-in-law who shows up every day…

Even before Gio had the chance to go to her, his mother was already on the doorstep. She brought four Tupperware boxes with food, to be honest, she can cook wonderfully, but I can’t wait for her to come by every day! My girlfriends haven’t even all visited yet.

It didn’t seem like Gio could make it clear to his mother that she really doesn’t have to come over every day. So I carefully tried to gauge how long she would stay in the hotel. “Well those overnight stays cost a lot of money, so I thought maybe I could sleep on the couch with you from tomorrow? You will not be bothered by me and I can help with the care at night?”

Inside I exploded with anger, but at the same time I also had to laugh. My mother-in-law really has a plate for her head. How does she come up with such a thing? “Well that’s very sweet, but we don’t need that, we’re fine with the two of us,” I said. Those words fell rather wrong, to say the least, and I’ve never seen anyone look so sour.

Angry mother-in-law

What followed was a diatribe. How could we be so ungrateful? We should be happy with her help! Gio stood by and looked at it and couldn’t utter a sensible word. While my mother-in-law kept rattling. “Actually, your mother should have been here every day!” That last sentence totally pissed me off. She can’t say anything about my mother. At that moment I couldn’t control myself anymore and I screamed just a little too loud as if they were leaving our house too.

It helped, because we haven’t seen her for three days now, but fun is different. Gio resented me so much that I started yelling at her. While I couldn’t stand the fact that he didn’t open his mouth.

I can’t worry too much about it because I have enough other things on my mind and I’m running out of time. The days are flying by and I can’t imagine how I’m ever going to work again at this point. Last weekend was Awakenings festival and I secretly bought tickets. Before I gave birth I had hoped that I would be able to go there again, but my body has not yet recovered at all. And I certainly don’t want to think about drinking alcohol all day. Who would have thought?

I gave the tickets to Jessie and her new lover. She seems to be head over heels in love. The day after the festival came, Jessie called me to report. I can hear in her voice that something is wrong. “It was so weird! But I’m pretty sure I saw Tommy kissing another girl..!”

Maud (23) likes to party and travel. She works in the editorial office of a magazine. Maud is in a relationship with Gio and she has just given birth to their son Liam. You can read her adventures every week in a new episode of Nachtboek van Maud.