“I had a terrible pregnancy that ended with me having my son a month and a half early. I had an emergency c section. It was a terrifying experience; I had to be put completely out because I was so scared, and I couldn’t stop shaking. When I came to, a nurse was pulling an X-ray pad off of me. I was really confused, and I was told my baby boy was doing fine and I had pneumonia.
I spent almost a week in the hospital recovering. My son was in the neonatal intensive care in an isolette. I was told my son would be there for at least another 4 weeks.
On Friday, my husband came to visit me. He was excited that his hockey team was to play the championship game on Sunday. That’s when I told him the doctor had come to see me and let me know I would be released on Sunday.
We ended up having a huge argument. I didn’t think I was being unreasonable, expecting my husband to take me home from the hospital. I knew it was going to be really hard leaving my baby at the hospital when I went home and I needed support. My husband told me I was a selfish brat.
The next day, in trooped my husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law. The men quickly excused themselves to go get coffee, leaving me alone with my mother-in-law. As soon as they left she started on me about this stupid hockey game. I should also point out this was a ‘fun’ league, nothing serious. She went on to tell me how hard my pregnancy and the birth of our child was on her son, and that he needed something for him. She told me everyone focuses on the mother and the father is on the sideline. She told me not to be selfish, and to give him this little thing that was so important. She spent the better part of an hour attempting to convince me.
Quite a while later, my husband and father-in-law came back in discussing this stupid frigging hockey game. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that angry in my whole life. The three of them sat there talking about it while I sit in the bed getting angrier by the second, I was on the verge of having a flip out. They were talking around me like I wasn’t even in the room.
Thankfully, my mom and my sister showed up. The room was crowded so my in-laws and husband decided to leave. Good riddance!
I told my mother what had just happened and she was furious! She told me not to worry, and she and my stepdad would be happy to take me home.
Later in the evening, my husband came back to let me know he would in fact be playing hockey the next day. He told me again that I was being selfish, and that his mother agreed with him and said he should do what was right for him regardless of how I felt.
My mother-in-law justified my husband’s terrible behavior over and over, but this is the one that hurt the most.”
