No one has it easy..

I spoke to this cousin of mine and actually she's a cousins wife but we get along quite well. The fact that we had babies withing weeks of each other and were together in pregnancy woes helped.

She always used to talk about quitting her job to bring up her baby earlier but has been extremely particular about keeping her job now after the baby. I always thought there was something odd about that and got to know the reasons today. The five months that she was home after the baby made her realize that she couldn't quit working. No she is not really an ambitious career woman. She just knows she can't live 24x7 with her mom-in-law. If she does she will loose her sanity.

Now the MIL is my aunt, my father's sister so I know she is just like my grand mother and so I know what she can do to her daughter in law from my mother's experience. Now this lady is so bossy, she can choke you with it. Its hard to refuse her for anything. Imagine living with her. It makes me gasp for breath.

The MIL takes care of the baby all day so that means the baby has to be brought up her way. The DIL didn't want to use a bottle to feed the baby but it didn't happen. The DIL didn't want to use diapers on the baby all day but obviously it was too inconvenient. The really weird part is that the son is made to believe that the baby is kept in cloth nappies all day by his mother. The only time that the MIL really feeds and cleans the baby herself is when the son is around and the rest of the time its up to the maid. I would have thought the DIL was paranoid if I didn't really know the MIL myself.

I really pity this poor girl. She has to work only because she can't stay at home. Her guilt for staying away from her baby is killing her but she knows that staying at home will result in so much frustration that she won't be able do justice to her baby.

Now the worst part is that she had a nice 6 hours of work arrangement with her boss at her current work place instead of 8 but thats over. The department she used to work for shut and she has to look for another job. That would mean longer hours of work and less time with the baby. She would not be able to get home by 5 pm to take her kid to the park anymore.

I suggested looking for a part time thing but there aren't any options. I feel terrible for her and suddenly my life seems like a cake walk in comparison.