Parents of the HS Class of 2009 (Part 1)

Best wishes for both of you. Fingers crossed.

Good luck with the flights. If itā€™s helpful, H flew from Dulles this morning and had no problem.

Best of luck CQ and MP. Hope travel is smooth.

Best of luck. We are here in London. No problem leaving for London. ShawWife will fly home in a few days. I will probably go to Mexico City first.

Both of my flights were on time and the security lines were short. Amazing. The snow fell between flights. Younger daughterā€™s original flight was cancelled early in the day. After a stressful hurry up for an earlier flight situation and several re-bookings, she ended up arriving two hours earlier than originally scheduled.

The bridal shower was really niceā€¦those hearty northerners all showed up in a snowstorm.

Dā€™s future MIL is making me uncomfortable, however. She has a strong personality and always wants things to go her way with respect to the wedding. Fine. We knew that. But after this weekend, she told her son that I said something I absolutely did not say, to make it seem like I was lobbying for something she actually wants. This is not a case of misinterpretationā€¦the subject did not come up at all when I saw her, yet she is telling her son that I made a point of mentioning the subject to her at the shower. I am a lawyer - I totally get advocating for your positionā€¦but lying to get your way is not cool.

MP I would not be thrilled at all. Hate lying. Why does she want so much say in the wedding?

Itā€™s just her personality. The thing is, because there are going to be two services and two meals, she gets to be in charge of a whole lot more than most mothers of grooms. But itā€™s not enough for her, I guess.

Wow. HMMM. Does your D recognize any of this as being an issue?
That said, welcome to this new world of being a mother-in-law with the kidā€™s in-laws.(for a D)
There is SO much that I will never say out loud which has worked ok for me. I am super non competitive but that does not mean that I do not see things. Hopefully, it will get better for you. I know that once or twice D has shared some things I had noticed but other than that I just swallow hard and smile a lot.
As you know, if the ā€œrightā€ moment arises then you can bring it up with your D and get her take.
(an outright lie? Nasty!!!) The alternative is to bring it up with the future MIL. Probably the best way but no doubt difficult. Just remember that your D loves you and knows in her bones who you are and in the end will support/defend you if need be.

Hello to all! I have been away too long! Just havenā€™t been online much this past year. Have missed you all.

NM, hello!

Oregon, my D is the one who brought the MIL lie to my attention. The lie is over an issue about which the MIL and her son disagree. So she brought me and my (non)statement into the argument, as support of why it has to be her way. I am utterly indifferent on the issue, as is my D.

Thanks for clarifying. Good for your D, too, for seeing the truth. Yikes, I hope your D can handle this woman! Actually, I mean I hope your to be SIL can handle her. There was no one who could handle my own mother when she dug her heels in. One reason we went to New Zealand to get married. Far away from her meddling.

Waving ā€œhelloā€ to all! Not sure when I last posted here ā€¦ I have been scanning all the news, though. Condolences or kudos to everyone as appropriate. (And speaking of people who havenā€™t been on here in a while, where is @kmcmom13?)

S (our HS '09 grad) is still in the Air Force. Heā€™s been on 1 deployment to Kuwait and scheduled for another 6 month gig starting in April. The last we heard heā€™ll be going back to the Middle East to a ā€œsafeā€ place ā€“ which, of course, is fine with me. He had actually requested to be sent to Afghanistan, but Iā€™m not sure thereā€™s a squad from his unit going there. (And donā€™t get me started on why in the world he would ask for this assignment ā€¦) ANYWAY, he has more than fulfilled his commitment to the USAF, but he still wants to fly. His solution was to get picked up for a pilot slot by either the Air National Guard of the Air Force Reserves ā€“ meaning he would join if he was given a slot to be trained as a pilot. He was extremely focused and sent out lots of applications. He also flew all over the place for interviews. PLUS, he got his private pilotā€™s license to boost his chances. Long story short ā€“ he got a pilot spot with the Delaware National Guard! He is SO excited!! First he has to finish his assignment in FL, which means doing the spring deployment. Then heā€™ll get slotted into pilot training. Overall Iā€™m proud/worried.

H and I are at our urban winter digs. We just emerged from several days of deep freeze and a snow/sleet/freezing rain storm. Ah yes ā€“ winter in New England! Speaking of H ā€“ his new company (managed care for people with diabetes) is off and running. He successfully raised the initial round of financing and theyā€™ll be moving into office space in Worcester, MA next month. The first participants will be enrolled shortly thereafter.

Good to hear from you, CBB. Does your son ever want to be a commercial pilot?

I just had a long conversation with older D to talk her off the ledge over additional future MIL issues. The latest is over the welcome bags (for hotel guests.) D and her fiancĆ© want to include half Indian treats and half American treats. MIL can chose whatever Indian treats she wants. Now the MIL wants to control which American treats are added! How can she possibly care so much?! When Son got married, I had exactly zero conversations with the bride or her mother about welcome bagsā€¦I didnā€™t even know there were welcome bags until I saw one of themā€¦and I did not care a bit that I wasnā€™t consulted.

How are you folks up north holding out? Hope you can stay inside.

Older D was supposed to fly in tomorrow for final wedding planning meetings. She is smart - she was able to get on a flight this afternoon and will arrive in an hour or so. (Her original flight has already been cancelled.)

Glad your D was able to come on an earlier flight!

Not as cold here as the Midwest, I am in the Albany NY area for work where itā€™s snowing. Iā€™m thankful itā€™s currently in the mid-20s and not colder!

Have fun, mp. Good for your older D!
cq, glad you are not in Chicago!

Dā€™s MIL leaves this weekend after 5 weeks living with them for childcare. SIL has paternity leave for 6 weeks. FIL takes over for the next 6 weeks and then MIL for one more month. Gā€™Son will then begin daycare June 1. We have helped here and there and have tried to visit and take MIL out for entertainment. Still, they are the golden people. I cannot wrap my head around full time, 10 hour days, day in and day out. I took two and it about did me in. I just donā€™t have that take care of the grand baby gene. I keep reminding myself that H and I will be the ones to take care of him when he is sick or daycare is not open. I am happy that D and SIL are happy with all of this. I guess if I am honest I do not understand the need to NOT have him in daycare now. He is a high entertainment need baby and will be happy with all of the interaction. Anyway, all are healthy and doing fine so that is good.

Hi all. Was in To for a week with work. Itā€™s going well.

I would have loved to have taken care of the grandkids. With me working though that went to DILs side. She is home with them but occasionally needs help. I wish I were able to do it. I get the not putting a baby in daycare early if there is an alternative. I was lucky. I took 6 months off with my S and 9 months with my D.

We are pages and pages back now! So thought to drop in and see how everyone is doing.

SIL is taking care of 22 weeks old Gā€™s son AND a friendā€™s 24 week old baby for two weeks. He sends me pictures of the kids and also his excellent dinner and tells me the laundry is also washed, folded, and put away. LOL, D married her mother. Now I have slowed down and would not keep up with all of that but I sure did in the day and worked part time. SIL is on a 6 weeks maternity leave and there is a measles epidemic here. None of the parents want their child in daycare and have limited their time in public so he stepped up. H went and helped one day but he seems to want to do this by himself.

Light snow here but not sticking. H and I went to dinner and a Jazz concert last night returning home at midnight. It seemed surreal as I cannot remember the last time we were out that late and on a week night to boot.

Wondering what everyone is doing and how you are doing.

We are just finishing up two lovely weeks in Sanibel. Bike in the morning, work most of the day, walk on the beach, seafood for dinner. We are thinking of buying a house here (Sanibel or maybe Longboat Key/Sarasota). Hard to want to go back to Boston. Will have to go to Chicago or Toronto next week and then with ShawWife to NY for a long weekend.

Iā€™ve probably mentioned the company I started with some Stanford kids. Last night, we signed a term sheet accepting $3.5 MM from a group of venture capital firms. Should be fun getting this baby up and running.