MIL who believes photos of her baby grandson are ‘annoying’ sparks debate

“Attention seeking in the extreme!”

Laura Jackel

3 min read

July 24, 2024 - 5:15PM

Image: iStock

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The relationship between a mother and daughter in law is often fraught, particularly after the kids arrive.

Mother-in-laws often have a reputation for being overbearing and too involved with their families, but this mother-in-law is so sick of seeing photos of her grandson online, she has decided to ‘mute’ her daughter-in-law’s social media accounts.

She took to popular parenting forum Mumsnet to air her woes.

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"I've muted her"

“My DIL posts on Instagram and Facebook multiple times a day, always about the baby,” she writes.

“When the baby has been to this class or that event - always happy smiley pictures, but they do get annoying after a while. So I've muted her.”

The mother-in-law goes on to explain that they have a family group chat, and that she uses this to catch up with things on a regular basis. But she missed some big news about her grandson by not checking her socials that caused her daughter-in-law to get upset.

“I received a message last night asking why I hadn't commented on her post about the baby having chickenpox,” the older woman shared. Her daughter-in-law also said that it must mean she “didn't care” about the baby.

While the poster says she told her that she “must have missed this news” she was annoyed.

“We'd had a chat in our family WhatsApp group earlier that day, and there was no mention of chickenpox there. So I've had to go to Instagram, trawl through her many posts and write my comment!

“It’s ridiculous and it seems I can never get it right!”

The mum also questions why did her daughter-in-law not simply tell her about the chickenpox when they chatted earlier in the day via WhatsApp?

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"What about your son?"

While more than 90 percent of voters felt the mother-in-law was not being unreasonable for missing the Instagram post, the hundreds of comments were a mixed bag.

Many pointed out that she was focussed so much on her daughter-in-law, she hadn’t mentioned her son at all.

“Weird that you're focusing on your daughter in law rather than being upset that your son didn't feel the need to share something like this with you.”

Another commenter added it was unusual to not enjoy posts about the grandkids: “I think it's weird to mute someone for posting photos of your grandchild ‘too much’ though, so clearly I'm not the audience you wanted for your moan.”

A second user agreed: “I can't imagine ever finding photos of my grandchild annoying.”

"So tiresome"

Other people agreed wholeheartedly with this worn out grandma who is not a social media fan.

“Posting pics and info about kids when they are ill is both in really bad taste and attention seeking in the extreme - it’s not nice for the kids.”

Another added: “People who have to play their whole lives out on social media for attention are so tiresome.”

Some had practical advice for the grandmother on how she should proceed.

“I would just tell your son and daughter-in-law that you don't really look at social media much and if they have something important to tell you about the baby, or anything else, to WhatsApp you.”

One poster remarked: “Agree that you should speak to your son and let him know important information shouldn't be coming through Facebook as you don't interact with it often.”

One commenter felt the whole situation was quite bizarre.