GainesvilleMoms.com

Today a group of my in-laws "dropped by" to see the baby. I had just taken a shower and some poison ivey med that makes me sleepy and was about to crash for my first sleep in over 24 hours when the knock sounded at the door. I had to make a choice and fell asleep in our room while everyone socialized and met the baby without me. This made me sad and frustrated. I want ppl to call first so they "drop by" at convenient and appropriate times. Am I too uptight/a control freak?

i totally agree with you! i have always wanted people to call first and atleast say "hey we're on our way over". especially with a new baby...they didnt know that he wasnt sleeping. they didnt do what was right for the baby, they did what they wanted. which is selfish. i would definitely say "hey, just call me first to make sure he isnt sleeping" or even if you are home! you're not uptight at all...you're absolutely right!

I never had this happen. I cannot even imagine anyone actually doing that to new parents...

Definitely call first -- that's nonnegotiable. Even if they had given you the 10-15 minutes' notice from when they left their house -- it would have been a nice courtesy. New babies are almost never on a schedule. They could have showed up during a feeding or at nap time.

Absolutely call first! We had the same problem because my hubby's whole family lives in town! But, like I said, I always fell back on...time for her to eat haha!

NOT cool. Not at all. We didnt have the problems at all with our inlaws... we were so lucky....

We never had this happen when the baby was born, except from my mother in law. But, she does this all the time. We live in the same town, so about 4-5 times a week, she just opens the door and comes in. No knocking. Going on 5 1/2 years now. My occuring nightmare is the kids being away from home, and my husband and I having a good ole time on the sofa, just to be walked in on by my mother in law. Makes me shake just thinking about it!

Well Pidge, I couldn't help but wonder if your mother-in-law happened to walk in on you and your husband, if she wouldn't start knocking first a little more!

Again, glad to say this is not an issue in my family! It may be a good strategy to, when you see her coming up the walk, stage a little "embarrassing situation" to ensure she starts knocking .

When my daughter was born, we lived in Georgia. We were super parents the first time around (or at least we thought we were). Her daddy took off a week from work and we asked that noone visit until his week was up. My mother (saintly woman) respected our wishes and waited as much as it pained her. But for whatever reason, we felt like we needed to do this by ourselves.

anyway, my daughter was born on a monday (mother's day was the following sunday) and we came home wednesday morning. Friday night around 10pm i heard a car pull up so i went to ck it out only to find my in laws in my front yard. i was so mad, i could not believe that my mother in law held my first born before my mother did. i could not believe that they completely disregarded our wishes. it's not like they just dropped in on their way home, they lived four hours away.

needless to say, my baby and i spent a lot of time in my bedroom that weekend. and i told them they had to leave by Sunday because my mother was coming for a week on Monday morning.

It was absolutely not right of your in-laws to just drop by unannounced after you've just brought home baby. When I was growing up, my parents had an open door policy. I really wish we could do that now, but times do change. We have things going on and places to be. It's better for everyone if you just make a simple call to make sure that everyone's on the same page.

As a side note...My in-laws came for Christmas the year that J was born. My parents came as well and prepared well in advance. My mother-in-law decided to wait until the last minute, book an expensive hotel and call me to see if we would have a car they could borrow. J was less than one week old and I'm having to worry about finding my inlaws a car to drive??? She had waited until 1 day before their arrival to start calling car rental places. Since it was a holiday, of course most everything was already booked!

RE: Pidge...I was on the other end of your nightmare once=-) I was probably 16 when my boyfriend (now husband) decided to pop in on his friend. His friend Matt still lived with his parents. Well hubby used to go over there so much to game with Matt that Matt's Mom decided to give Scott a key. When we approached the door I questioned hubby about using his key instead of knocking, but he assured me that Matt's Mom liked him using the key so she didn't have to answer the door. Well, needless to say we got one glimpse of Matt's Mom sitting on the couch next to Matt's butt naked Dad and scurried right back to Matt's room. I don't know who was more embarrassed, but we decided just not to bring it up again. I'm sure hubby never used the key after that!

WOW! I can't believe how many others have had the same problem. I asked my hubby to speak to them but he is so non-confrontational he probably won't and I will end up being the bad guy but who cares right now...I'll later blame the hormones!

I kindly and gently notified my in-laws and friends that although I loved them and wanted them to see our new babies (born almost 6 years apart), I needed a phone call first to prepare for their visit. They were all wonderful about it.

However, I apparently didn't tell the mail lady about calling ahead. One day there was a knock at our front door (in Lakeland) as I was breast-feeding with no shirt to cover me. I was expecting my mother-in-law's visit so I yelled, "Come on it." You should have seen the mail carrier's face! I think it was the first time she had seen a customer's chest. From that day forward, there was a bond between us (along with a bra and shirt).

I was be so upset if that happens when our LO arrives. As it is I've told all of our friends and family for years to call first. I don't care if they call from the parking lot but they better call first. I just hope they continue to respect that rule once he's born. Right now I'm torn on whether I want people to stay away that first week or not. I think we'll just take it one day at a time.