I asked my mother-in-law to come over on the weekends to help me cook for my kids because I am a working mum. I thought it would be the best solution. Things went badly when she refused to help, saying she was just a guest in our house.
Because she was making me angry and disrespected, I had to tell her she was no longer welcome in our home. I thought that was the end of it, but she had other ideas.
A few days later, my 10-year-old son called me in tears to tell me something bad. When I got home, our kitchen was a mess, with snacks and junk food all over the place. I heard from my son that his grandmother came over, took all the food, and told the kids that she was still their grandmother, no matter what I said.
In an effort to play down the event, my husband said that his mother wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. I couldn’t get rid of the feeling, though, that she had crossed a big line when she brought our kids into the fight.
I couldn’t help but wonder if I had been too harsh when I kicked her out of our house as I tried to make sense of what had happened. She was a threat to my children, but I didn’t want to completely cut her out of our lives. It was important to me to fix things and earn trust again, but I knew it wouldn’t be simple.
Some things made me think and raise a lot of questions. How could I keep her from getting in the way of my kids’ life? Once faith had been broken, was it possible to build it again? Not only for my own sake, but also for the sake of my kids and our whole family, I knew I had to figure out how to get through this tough situation and move on.
