AITAH for being cold to my MIL after she tried to heal my sick baby with “Energy”?
I (34f) and my MIL (68F) have typically get along great. I have been able to ignore her weird ass beliefs, but I feel like I hit my breaking point today.
For context, she is a really nice lady. I mean, she takes care of my son (7months)while I am at work completely free and it has been such a blessing since childcare was one of the main reasons we were skeptical about having kids. But she is sometimes too nice, to the point of gullibility.
That being said, she is extremely susceptible to health fads and for about 10 years now, she has believed all physical ailments are due to “Trapped emotions” in our body parts and believe she can heal people by releasing those emotions. I think with crystals of some kind…but I try not to ask too many questions out of fear I might say something insensitive. She once said she healed my son’s insomnia by relieving a strong feeling of guilt in his pituitary gland that he picked up from me (coincidentally, the day after I told her I cried for hours after he fell off the couch while co-sleeping).
Anyway, my partner (34M) and I have had some sort of head cold (we think) but are worried if we do have something more severe, it will spread to our baby. Yesterday, on my day off, I noticed he was feeling warm and was extremely congested. I treated him with saline and a booger sucker, took his temp, and discovered he had a low grade fever. Great….. so that was my whole day. Checking his temp, saline, and sucking out tablespoons of boogies all day.
So when I dropped him off at her house this morning, I explained that I packed a little kit with all the stuff she’d need to care for him and asked her to check his temp throughout the day and to give him some Tylenol to control the fever if need be. She just said “Don’t worry, I’ll check him”
When I went to pick him up this evening, and I noticed he was really, really grumpy, melting down at something as simple as dropping my keys that he was playing with. Suspicious, I asked how he was and if he spiked a fever. She just said “I checked him for trapped emotions and I didn’t find anything wrong so he’s okay” I paused, took a deep breath, and asked calmly “But did you use the thermometer?” And she said “No, but I took him outside for some vitamin D and he’ll be okay”. It’s 90 degrees out today btw.
I didn’t yell, I wasn’t rude, I just stayed silent while I packed him up and quickly left, not my normal conversational self. I typically spend at least 20 minutes making small talk before leaving. Today, I just left.
When we got home, he was warm (99.1*), but I’m so worried he might have spiked and suffered today for no good reason. I know his screams, and the one today after dropping my keys was pain.
But now I feel really guilty for being so cold to her. I am a first time mom and borderline helicoptery, but I feel like my son’s well-being comes above all else in my life so this is seriously concerning to me. AITAH?