A Baby and Wine

Ok, so let me lay out the story. I just sat down at the dinner table with the rest of my family and begin to feed my son the KidCuisine he picked out at the market. The in laws pour a glass of wine while my hubby serves everyone up a big piece of Stoffer's lasagna with buttered french bread. After everyone but my son and I are done eating, my future mother in law offers to help feed my son the rest of his meal while I finish up mine. Part way through this, she starts feeding the dog off of my son's fork some of his food. We've been trying to get my son to not feed the dog his food or teach the dog that begging is ok, so this is already a big no-no. Then she proceeds to feed my son with the same fork the food that was still on it that the dog didn't eat!

Already upset by this I ask if she could not do that because I think it's gross. I also tell her that he'll eat or drink just about anything without a second thought and think it's good, so if she could not teach him bad eating habits. It's bad enough (at least to me) that he's already had and really like french fries. So I start to gather the dirty dishes off the table to bring them into the kitchen to be washed. I look up to see her giving my son something to drink from her glass. I didn't think anything of it for a split-second until I realized it was her wine glass he was drinking out of! And it wasn't just a sip either... my 15 month old son had a huge swig of red wine!

I started freaking out, not even knowing how to react. What makes a grown nurse mother think that it's ok to give a little baby alcohol? What freakin compels someone to feel proud that they got to give someone else's baby their first taste of wine?! WHAT COMPELS SOMEONE TO GIVE A BABY WINE IN THE FIRST PLACE, REGARDLESS OF WHOSE KID IT IS?!?!?! Her response to my and her son's disapproving reaction?

"I just wanted to see if he liked it. I wanted to see if he would scrunch up his face... he didn't have that much you guys..."

... my hubby responds with a good response, "Any amount is too much at this age mom. Thanks for helping my son along the path of an alcoholic." I still can't believe she did that... my dad knows not to do stupid stuff like that and he actually listens to me and what kind of life I'm trying to set up for my son. She and my future father in law like to do what I say not to do because they like to watch me freak out. His words, not mine. They had 3 children of their own and got to raise them how they wanted... They should let me and my man raise our one and only child the way we want and plan to.

To make this all worse, an hour later they start saying (and not to me by the way, only to their son) how we don't listen to our son and how we're always on our laptops when they get home and how Aidan (my son) always runs up to them crying when they walk in the door. All this followed by they think we don't feed him enough because he always acts so hungry, they don't like how our room is never clean, and just more complaints...

1. We're on our laptops when they get home (which is around 7pm) because we have school solely online so we need to get our work done for all of our classes as well as take our exams. They never see us at any point before that, so they don't see us scrambling around trying to keep order in the house between the baby and the animals, picking up and thoroughly cleaning all of the common areas  (meaning everywhere but our room), running errands that his parents ask us to get done before they get home, plus doctor and nurse appointments for all of us, a couple days a month for a social life, the time we spend going on walks to the park so Aidan can play and so we can get some exercise, preparing dinner (and not just for us, but for his parents too), and taking care of the animals (which aren't ours).
2. Our son runs up crying to them when they get home because he misses them and is sick of seeing my and his daddy's face all day long. He loves to see and be with people! And since we all live with his parents (yeah, it blows...) Aidan expects to see them often.
3. He always acts so hungry because he has my appetite. He eats all day long and he's generally eating pretty good sized food portions too. My future MIL (mother-in-law) just gets really paranoid about our parenting so it seems.
4. Last but not least, our room is never really clean because we're too busy running their house!!! They pretty much come home from work, eat, shower, fuss, and then go to bed. Not even a thank you for taking care of the dinner and dishes as well as feeding their pets and cleaning their house.

Nope... we're pretty much greeted with a whole lot of fussing and criticism. And it's not even constructive... I actually take a whole lot if it in offense. To me it basically sounds like their telling us that we're bad parents when I know for a fact that we're good parents. They're just not there when a majority of the day is going on. And I still love how after they gave a baby alcohol they have the balls to criticize us... yeah...talk about ungrateful.

I guess what they say about in-laws is true, huh? :P