Are you okay with your child spending Christmas without you?

Ooo a bit of a hard one, However he is your son so it’s yours and husbands choice and you just like you said wanted a relaxing Christmas with the 4 of yous, could mother in law not just pop in with presents on Xmas day like you’ve said and go off and do her thing? Hope you have a lovely Xmas either way

Could your MIL send the presents over Christmas eve with your son? So he can open them up Christmas morning. It would be so sad to wake to no presents but I also understand wanting to be with him for Christmas day

No that's silly. He should be home with his parents. As you've said he'll have presents to open from other family members

I asked my husband when we pick up our son if we can bring the presents home so, that he can open on Christmas Day? My husband said, he’s gonna talk to his mother about what her plan is as they’d like to watch our son open the presents they got for him. So, hopefully they’ll bring the presents over and they can watch him open it.

That is a tricky one, personally I wouldn't want my partner taking my little girl to his family's without me, especially when I've told my family we won't be visiting them Is this what your son wants to do? Open presents at Grandma's? It's nice they want to see him open presents there, but what does he want to do? If your son would like to be there then maybe he opens presents at their's then comes home and does christmas again with you all? Or vice versa?

If you didn't get him presents then ofcourse he should be able to go somewhere where he can open presents. To me it's about what makes him happiest on the day and when I was 5 all i cared about was presents!

I completely missed that part I agree, he should have presents to open for Christmas day x

If that’s the case let him spend a few hours over there

I mean if he’s not going to have any presents at home then I’d let him go ! It’s Christmas - won’t it feel a little sad if he hasn’t got anything to open. Couldn’t you get him some Tiny bit , a selection box etc . X

My husband just told me that his mother will bring our son home tomorrow along with the presents (we also got presents as well). That’s also a good question. Asking our son if he’d like to open presents at grandmas. If he does, then it’d be difficult because his aunt and uncle (my siblings) is planning to come over to bring his presents and wants to see him open them also (I’m not sure what time they’ll arrive as I told them we’ll be home all day).

@Katiana I’m sorry to hear that.. You’re like, whenever I show up. lol. Aww. This is my second baby first Christmas also! As much as I would like to see everyone for the holidays but I don’t want to risk it for my newborn. He currently has a cold (caught it from his big brother) so he’s a little stuffy/congested but is doing good (no fever or anything serious).

You can always send a video of him opening up their presents?

I’d say hard no to this one, especially given the context (at first I assumed it was a co-parenting situation, which would be harder to navigate). Your husband is a bit out of line by unnecessarily putting you in this position, tbh. There are many solutions here. In-laws come to your house on Christmas morning or watch him open the gifts on a FaceTime call. Or he opens them today before he comes home (possibly saving one small one to go under the tree “from Santa”). Does he have any old toys that he’s maybe forgotten about? You could wrap up some of those to go under the tree. Or, any chance your siblings could drop off their gifts today and those could go under the tree for tomorrow morning? It’s a hard situation but I’m a firm believer that Christmas memories are formed by spending quality family time together (singing, playing, baking, etc.). The gifts they got, and from whom, are forgotten over time.

Honestly I would only want for my son to be happy excited and filled with good memories both my boys 12 and 7 are with their dads this Christmas and it’s heartbreaking but i know they will have a blast and enjoy their presents and spending time with family.

Edit: Im basing my reply from your recent comment. Just tell the visiting family that afternoon would be better for yall and ask his mom to bring your son by lunchtime. Me personally (idk your situation or anyone else's). I have a pretty good relationship with both mine and my husband's family. If I had a newborn right now and didn't want to go anywhere, I'd let my child, who was older, at least do a parted day with the near by family. There's always the option to have Christmas on a different day. But also when I was a child my divorced parents always halved up Christmas so I was pretty much on the road the whole time visiting different family members. If they were too far then we'd video chat and open our cards they sent. Or visit a month later and have Christmas all over again

@Ella don’t be rude.

This sounds like a reasonable plan. It would also be reasonable for him to stay home. No wrong choice as long as he’s safe and loved

@Genevieve That’s what I thought also. My son can FaceTime/video chat my in laws to see him open the presents or yes, open them today before coming home. Majority of his toys are cars, car tools, power tools and most of them are also destroyed by him 😅 My oldest sister is having her surgery today (she had a miscarriage - 5 months pregnant) and my brother is working and doesn’t get off until 5:00pm-5:30pm and by the time he gets to my place, it’d be late as I’m an hour away plus traffic too.. My side of the family celebrates Christmas, it’s more about quality time with family than it is about presents. Presents are mostly for the kids and it is optional for the adults too. My mother in law goes all out with Christmas and presents. When we go over, it’s only for a short period of time. We would eat, open presents, hang out for a bit then leave home. My mother in law could only handle things to an extent cause then her anxiety takes over.

I have three kids you don’t need that much time to recover from birth it’s Christmas it’s kinda selfish in my opinion to keep your kids away from family so that you can relax

if they want to watch him open presents THAT bad, facetime is a thing. I’m sorry but he should be home with his parents. I feel like recently christmas has been made about presents when it really is about spending quality time with the people you love. Presents or not. Andddd plus you said you have family dropping stuff off so he’ll have stuff to open regardless

@s a r a 🥀 it seems like gift giving is her love language, which I can understand, but if you want everyone to be together on Christmas morning, then she’ll have to accommodate that somehow. Good luck. I hope it all works out.

@Shannon how was I rude??

UPDATE: Mother and sister in law brought the presents (including ours) over and we all opened them together 🤍

@Nowy I’m sure everyone is different when it comes to recovery. It’s Christmas/the Holidays is one of the reason I would like to stay home and not have to travel anywhere after giving birth. It puts a lot of pressure, I don’t want to get our newborn sick and what not from being around so many people . There’s a lot of factors that plays into it. My 2 oldest siblings also have 3 kids. My oldest sister had a rough recovery as her tailbone got dislocated after giving birth to her third child. She felt the same way as I do not wanting to travel after giving birth. Family members are welcome to bring/drop off the presents for the kids .

@s a r a 🥀 no literally. ignore her. everyone recovers at a different pace that was such an unnecessary comment