Fury As New Mom Wants to Distance Baby From 'Not Well Educated' In-Laws

Relationships with the in-laws can be hard to navigate, especially when you have very different personalities and backgrounds and don't get along very well. A woman has confessed she doesn't want her in-laws too involved in her child's life, and users are finding her "snobbish" and "immature."

In a post shared on Mumsnet in November, the woman under the username BetsyWombat, explained that her in-laws, who have been visiting her newborn twice a week since he was born, are "not well educated" and can be quite "loud, coarse, and immature," and for this reason, she would like to cut back contact to every three to four weeks.

She said: "I don't want to exclude them from my son's life as they are full of love for him, but I do worry they will have a negative influence and won't encourage him to be well educated and well mannered as he grows up. They often encourage behaviors in their other grandchildren that I wouldn't like to see in [my son]."

According to a survey by Pew Research Center, overall, about 55 percent of adults in the United States live within an hour's drive of at least some of their extended family members, while 28 percent live near all or most of their extended family, and 27 percent live near some extended family.

Peta-Gaye Sandiford, a therapist at Empower Your Mind Therapy, told Newsweek that grandparents should not have the right to see a child whenever they want.

She said: "Just because they are grandparents, it does not give them automatic rights to grandchildren as they are not primary caregivers. In an ideal situation, parents would love for grandparents to be involved. However, if the grandparents have difficulty respecting the boundaries of the parents, it would be more damaging to the relationship with the grandchild."

She added that not everyone shares the same values, but it is not okay to cut off contact with a grandparent just because of their education level.

"Unfortunately, not everyone is afforded the opportunity to receive a high level of formal education. In that case, communication and boundary setting are very important. It is also the parents' responsibility to instill the values in their own child and remind them to be inclusive and accepting of others despite differences."

Most of the 149 users who left comments on the thread agreed the woman was being too harsh on her in-laws. One user, Chococrimbo, commented: "Let them see their grandchild and take that opportunity to head out for a walk/coffee/do the shop."

And Skinnermarink said: "I am sorry OP but you sound precious, snobbish, and immature. Presumably, you had met your husband's family before you married him. You decided to take them on then, to a degree. All the other stuff aside, they love their grandchild, and that is worth preserving. It's not all about you anymore."

Ramble0n added: "I'd be more worried about your child growing up to be a crashing snob like you."

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.