Twinkle: It's Never Enough

So I thought I'd be a good daughter-in-law. We went over there for breakfast today, and I decided to stay for the morning and let Twinklette play with her grandparents, aunt, and cousin, even after Mr. Twinkle left for the UK game. We stayed from like 8:30 a.m. until noon, and lots of quality family playtime was had by all. I thought I'd win some extra brownie points for staying to hang, but of course it wasn't enough. It never is.

Basically I have been waiting all weekend to see Mr. Twinkle and have some quality family time with just Mr. Twinkle, Twinklette, and me...I don't think an hour to ourselves over the course of a weekend is too much to ask for. We had lunch Friday with my in-laws, a huge family dinner followed by a dessert open house with the fam on Friday night, then Mr. Twinkle went out with his high school friends who were in town, then we had lunch yesterday with the fam again. My mom came yesterday afternoon post-naptime and we went to a wedding last night (very fun...but still one more thing on the agenda) and I spent the morning at my in-laws' today while Mr. Twinkle went to the game.

I thought I'd already put in my time, so the three of us could do something fun and low-key tonight. I was feeling the Sol Aztecas or Queen of Sheba. Maybe a little family ice cream excursion to round out the weekend.

I was sorely mistaken. I found out from my FIL that we're expected at the Sunday night dinner tonight. Apparently every weekend mealtime (with the exception of the wedding last night) is not enough for them this weekend. You see, Buddy's in town. (Buddy's a totally random long-haired aging rocker dude who lives away somewhere. I've been hanging out with this family since circa '04 and never met Buddy until like a year ago. But now he's in town and I'd better d*mn well be there to go to Tony Roma's with him). Nothing against Buddy, but I kind of had a different vision for how the night would go.

The Twinkle Sucks vs. All Moms Suck tally is in: MIL really thinks all moms suck, including her own perfect example of a daughter. FIL and GMIL made statements that most normal people would, such as, "She wants her mommy," but I have never heard them say that about Twinklette wanting me, so I guess they still think I suck (when Twinklette was that age and cried, my FIL would say, "She's crying because she wants her grandpa"--they all would do that, actually, and it used to make me so mad. No one said that this weekend...if she was crying, they'd admit that she probably wanted her mommy). Then there was all GMIL's talk of separation anxiety. Based on the evidence, I'd say that FIL and GMIL think SIL is doing a good job (which is more credit than they ever gave to me), and MIL still thinks she's the only person who can get the job done.

Gotta go. I've got just a few hours of downtime before the big dinner with Buddy. (Or before I skip town with my kid and never look back).