So we had Christmas with DH's family today, after Christmas day with my parents. Yesterday was lovely, as no skid, and it was just DH and I, my parents, DH's father *shock, horror*, and our son. Today was awful...even DH admitted it. Skid made it all about her, as usual and acted like an obnoxious brat. Yet all day, DH's family was fawning all over her, while they all ignored our son, other than a couple of sarcastic comments about him being moody (he cried for a little bit because he's cutting molars, and he was trapped in a strange room full of people who were strangers to him). None of them ever bother with him either. His "brother" didn't even acknowledge his existence until he was nearly a year old, and DH's parents come to see him rarely, and try to make up for that lack of contact by throwing cash at him (he doesn't know them at all, they're basically strangers to him). The rest of the family have only met him twice, once last Christmas, and the Christmas just gone.

So we had a 3 hr round trip, baby misses his nap, just to be ignored all day by his so called family. DH and I are not happy about it at all. Our son got some presents, but they were either cheap or age inappropriate; clearly no thought put in at all. I don't want to sound materialistic, but considering the huge pile of thoughtful presents skid got, what little my son was given was pretty insulting. My parents alone, who don't have much money, (and have 6 other grandchildren to buy for), still got more gifts and more thoughtful gifts for my son than the whole of DH's side of the family combined. I didn't expect him to get loads, but the disparate amount of both thought and expense between the children's presents was undeniable.

Skid gets treated like royalty, and my son is treated like the red-headed stepchild of a rented mule. The only one that seems to hold my son in the regard he deserves is MIL's boyfriend, and is the only one that treats skid and our son equally, and it seems he's the reason why MIL is suddenly visiting more often. The rest of them fawn over the brat while my son is sidelined and barely acknowledged. I can't take the blatant favouritism towards skid anymore, especially despite how she is and how she behaves. She can be an obnoxious, disrespectful shit all day, and still gets treated like royalty, and is not pulled up on or disciplined for her behaviour and attitude. But my son cries a little like a normal baby, and he's a "moody" child. If any of them bothered to get to know him, they'd know that for him to cry like that, he was in a lot of pain. I'm not doing DH's family Christmas again. They can all fuck off.

It just highlights to me more and more that my son is missing out on knowing family that really love and care for him, so he and I can be forced to stay here and play happy families with skid who hates him (but pretends to love him for attention), and a "family" who couldn't give 2 shits about him. My niece and nephew and the rest of my family love and miss him so much, but it's hard for them to have the opportunity to build a relationship when they live at the other end of the country to us. Yet DH's family, who live way closer (my son's "brother" only lives a 15 minute drive away), don't bother with him. They think a 2 hour visit every couple of months, if that, with £20 in their pocket is enough. How about you visit him more, and stop trying to literally buy favour?!  My parents, bless them, feel so guilty that they haven't been able to see my son in a couple of months, because they were looking after my sick Grandma. So they've come to visit and are staying for a week to spend some time with him. DH's family (especially his parents), have no reason to not come to see him, yet will only deign to give him 2 hours of their time when they do bother, and even then it always coincides with skid's visitation, so it ends up as the skid show, with my son sidelined all over again. They're not really coming to see him...it's obvious. Why is it so unfair?! WTF could my 1 YEAR OLD have possibly done wrong to deserve to be treated like this by his own family?!