“Don’t Even Waste Your Milk On Her”: My MIL Pushed Our Newborn Daughter’s Bassinet Away Because “Only The Boy Matters.” But She Forgot We Weren’t Alone — She Said It In Front Of The Wrong Nurse
My mother-in-law entered the recovery room six hours after the twins were delivered.
She had just one gift bag with her.
Blue.
After thirty-six hours of labor, we had a boy and a girl.
When both babies were placed on my chest, Tom cried even more than I did.
Margot didn’t acknowledge me.
She immediately walked past my bed, took our son out of his bassinet gently.
“There he is,” she commented. “There’s the name.”
Our daughter rested nearby in her own bassinet.
“Margot,” I offered, “Do you want to hold her?”
She turned her shoulder slightly, just enough.
With the back of her hand, she pushed the bassinet aside, as if moving a tray she was done with.
The wheels made a squeaking sound.
“Don’t even waste your milk on her,” she remarked.
“Only the boy matters. You raise a girl for eighteen years and give her to another family.”
Tom stood there.
He lowered his eyes.
The monitor by my bed picked up speed.
My father-in-law chuckled, asking if the boy had “the shoulders.”
A phone flash blinked twice.
Our son was passed back and forth around the room, with Margot narrating as if it were her greatest moment.
Nobody approached the other bassinet.
Nobody spoke her name.
Margot eventually stopped. She placed our son down, smoothed her blouse, and said, “Well. At least you got that part right.”
That’s when the pen caught my attention.
The nurse had been quietly charting in the corner. The sound of her pen on the counter was surprisingly clear amid the noise.
She hadn’t spoken for twenty minutes.
She strode across the room, not glancing at me or Tom.
She placed her hand on our daughter’s bassinet, shifted Margot aside with her shoulder, and rolled it back to my bedside — near enough that I didn’t have to sit up to reach it.
Turning, she faced Margot.