Christmas Day. My parents and siblings came to my house for the holiday. I have a one-year-old son, the only grandson/nephew. My parents brought one of their dogs with them (a small breed poodle mix). This dog isn’t friendly around strangers or kids. Naturally, I kept my son away. While making Christmas dinner, I asked my sisters (all in their early 20s) to play with my son in his room for 10 minutes while I finished up. One of them apparently took the dog in there. After the dog bite, I called my sister-in-law who is a registered nurse, and texted a friend who is a physician’s assistant to see if this calls for an ER visit. They both assured me since the bite was small, and not an actual puncture wound (more of a scratch - still broke skin though), that as long as the dog was up to date on vaccines, specifically rabies, it should be fine and I can follow up with my doctor when they opened up after the holiday. My mother assured me the dog was up to date on vaccines. I should have known…two days later, when the vet office was open, I asked my mother to call and make sure. She texted me not long after, and said that the dog’s rabies was up to date until January 2022. I asked her for a copy of the certificate…3 times throughout the day and my mom had an excuse every time as to why she can’t send it to me right now. I finally called her vet office myself to find out the dog’s vaccines have been expired since 2016! I’m just livid at how she thinks this is a good moment for one of her lies. The chance of rabies is very VERY small, but as a parent, one never wants to take even that small of a chance.
She’s messed with me my entire childhood, and when I had my child, I tried to keep an open mind about allowing my mother to have a relationship with my kid. After all, people told me a grandmother’s relationship with their grandchild is closer to that of their own children. But this incident showed me she’s the same. And I want to cut off contact. Is this justified? Am I overreacting? She lives 2.5hrs away, so it wouldn’t be difficult to do. A conversation with her will do no good. We’ve tried in the past; she gets angry and starts throwing items at us. We’ve suggested therapy to her, and she laughs.
I’ll add that my older sibling cut off my mom after Christmas 2020. We had a Zoom Christmas (due to my dad having a mild case of Covid at that time). So, we all mailed the Christmas presents to each other. During the Zoom meeting, and while opening presents, my brother noticed the gifts him and his wife sent to my younger siblings (who live with my parents), were all wrapped up and addressed “From: Mom.” That was his last straw with her constant lying, and cut her off at that point. He didn’t see her all year until he came to my house for this years Christmas celebration, only for her to prove to him further why he will be solidifying his boundaries with her even more (no more holidays now).
If there’s another way about this other than cutting her off entirely, please, suggest away! Cutting her off means cutting my dad off too and that hurts. (She controls him, so yeah…)
And before anyone says anything, I absolutely took my son to see his pediatrician and he’s fine.