We dined at my fiancé's grandmother's house last night, and she presented him with a lovely, thoughtful gift: his grandfather's wedding band. It's sort of cheesy in an old-man's band kind of way, but it was a wonderful gesture and she doesn't expect him to wear it as his wedding band, since we purchased ours already.
Then, she looked at me and said "when the baby comes, if it's a girl, she can have my rings," as if I were already pregnant.
She's going to be the hardest one of the bunch, and when I'm with her i just melt. Not in the way that we'd have kids just to please her, or to avoid disappointing her, but in the way that I don't want to tel her we're not having children. Because his only aunt & uncle tried for years with no luck, I don't want to lie and say we ARE trying... y'know, in two years after A finishes school. I don't want to mock the pain they went through as she suffered miscarriages and stillbirths before deciding to stop and remain childfree.
How do you break someone's heart like that, though? How do I look at this poor 80-year-old woman, who's so excited for "when the baby comes", and tell her she will have no great-grandchildren. None. How do I tell her that? It's only in these moments that I feel selfish. Scratch that, it's not the selfishness -- it's that I feel like a bad person.
Yes, this is a selfish decision we're making, but we believe it's no more selfish than having children and expecting to carry on with the same lifestyle we currently have. The weekend trips here or there, the late nights spent gaming or just hanging out with friends, the quiet time alone together. But being selfish does not make us bad people.
Watching his grandmother, seeing how desperately she wants A to have a child, that's when I feel sick to my stomach with guilt because I know I can't give her what she wants. I can see the whole family growing to resent A's selfish wife who won't have kids. He won't get blamed, it'll all be on me, I just know it. I don't know how to prepare myself for that.
1 comment:
Why do you feel you are being selfish, but not that your fiance's grandmother is? Afer all she has already had both her own kids and grandkids. Why do you need to feel obligated to provide her with more kids? Isn't she being selfish to assume your life should revolve around her need for more children in her life?
I understand feeling sad that you can't make her happy, but she's a grown woman and she's made her own decisions - now you get to make yours. That's not selfish. Trust me, I do sympathise with your position. My mother and grandmother would very much like me to have kids. And I know about the end of the family line dealio, since my only other sibling is dead. But it is your life and if these people in our lives are not selfish themselves, and love us for who we are, they will understand.
dantera
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