Thursday, August 28, 2008

My sister

Oh my gawd. My head is going to explode.

My sister had her new baby. An adorable, sweet little thing. She was born on Monday. She lives far, far away, so who knows when we'll be able to see her. This is her 3rd child and 3rd daughter.

She refused to even try to breastfeed this one, even though she successfully breastfed the other 2 for six weeks. (until she went back to work.) I know 6 weeks isn't long, but it's some. She didn't even give this babe colostrum. She doesn't feel like it.
This is a tricky subject because I KNOW some people don't like or didn't like or didn't want to, breastfeed. Fine. Whatever.
It's an issue in my heart, but I understand that people are different. I haven't said a word to her about it and don't plan to. Formula is fine. Plenty of babies have thrived on it.

Now, my mom is telling me that she (sister) is insisting that her 3 day old baby needs to be on a 4 HOUR SCHEDULE. Even though she's screaming to eat after 2 hours. Gah. I want to smack her.

She is pissed that everyone is asking if the baby is a boy or girl because even though she's dressed in pink she has an extremely masculine name. Like, not even close to gender neutral.
I figured she'd expect that. Whatever. Her hormones are wacky - I get it. Totally get it. Been there.

Her husband (who is an alcoholic but cannot admit it) is telling everyone that he only drinks because of her. She is decidedly hard to get along with. Kind of horrible sometimes. He's no peach either though.

Their girls are so sweet. Her oldest started Kindergarten Monday. There was much screaming and yelling and "WHY DO I SEND YOU TO SCHOOL IF I HAVE TO TEACH YOU!?" last night. Child was willing to do homework. Parent was not.

There is always a lot of screaming there. I feel bad for yelling, but I can't even compare to her. Not even close.

I love my sister and her family but sometimes it is not easy. Actually, loving my nieces is extremely easy. Their parents? Not so much.

4 comments:

Jess said...

This is so sad. That homework thing especially just breaks my heart.

Misty said...

It is so so hard to watch littles that you love being raised by a family member who does things SO different from you.

I have literally told my slacker-ass brother that I will TAKE his little girl and raise her. I WANT her. But of course, that will never happen. Neither parent in that situation has a job - or has ever had a job - or a driver's license. I know the little girl is well fed and even loved. But I just...feel like I can do a better job.

Actually, our situations are pretty different. I feel bad for those little girls. And for the parents who can't seem to behave less selfishly.

Anonymous said...

This just breaks my heart. I feel sorry for her girls.

Swistle said...

The homework thing gives me a queasy feeling. You know the straw I grasped, though, is that they'll have YOU. They'll have you if they need you. You're far away, but when they're older they can even come visit---and when they're teenagers, they can talk to you.