Am I Wrong for Banning My Wife’s Parents from Watching Our Daughter Ever Again?

“I am Lily’s father,” I said. “And I can make that decision alone.

Because they did. They did and they didn’t even talk to us about it! Maybe I would have been open to it if they spoke to us, Natalie…

Or I would have been open to a compromise.”

She burst into tears. She said I was being unfair. That I was blowing this out of proportion.

“They’re her grandparents,” she cried.

“They love her. My parents will do anything for Lily… Why would you actually stop that?”

“Then they can love her while we’re present,” I nodded.

She kept pushing, saying that I was being cruel and had no right to control Lily’s relationship with her family.

And all I could think was: they didn’t just baptize my daughter.

They conspired to do it behind my back. That’s not love. That’s control.

Still, something didn’t sit right.

Helen had been smug, too smug. And Natalie had been oddly quiet when we found out about it.

A few days later, I couldn’t take it anymore.

Natalie was in the kitchen, making tacos for dinner. Lily was having her post-bath nap.

And I had been stewing in our home office for the past few hours.

But I couldn’t sit back and let it slide anymore.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” she said. “Don’t you want to check on Lily?”

“I will,” I said. “But I need to know something, Nat.”

“Yes, there’s extra guacamole,” she laughed, not understanding the seriousness of my tone.

“Did you know this was going to happen?”

At least she had the decency to be real.

She broke. Her face crumpled like paper. And then she said the word I already knew was coming.

“Yes.”

And the truth was even worse…Continue reading…