Shalida...all I have to say is there should be a support group for those of who have taken our C.O.W. MIL(s) to WDW, had the magic sucked out of us, and lived to tell about it!! Your post brought it all back for me; I took my MIL (ALONE!!) to the Flower and Garden Festival this past May, and, believe me, I am still having nightmears.
She took hours to get ready in the morning, stockpiled our leftover food from meals in her backpack (unrefrigerated dairy, meats, etc) and then proceeded to eat it days later (eewww!), was a complete terror in her electric wheelchair-running over numerous people and proceeding to bless them out for getting in HER way (!!), seriously offended a number of foreign CMs by ignoring their accented English and telling me to "translate" for her-right in front of their faces, having a total-knock-down-drag-out-screaming-yelling tantrum at me in the midst of Adventureland (trust me, I still have problems walking by that area!) when I left her alone in Epcot to enjoy MK on my own (oh, blessed peace!!) and she ended up "lost" on the monorail that unfortunately was delayed on the tracks for a few minutes, making her miss the MK parade. Of course, it was ALL MY FAULT for leaving her alone! How dare I!?
She literally brought bags of PILLOWS with her to the park along with numerous other things that I ended up carrying since "you have room in your bag, right??" (that's what I get for being so organized!); she spent money on inappropriate sourveniers (she bought my very manly and stoic DH a pair of Eeyore ears...??) and ended up using up all her cash (my FIL was treating us to this trip...I think that should have been a sign!) so at checkout, I had to pay a ~$500.00 bill that she had no way of paying (FIL won't let her carry a credit card, for obvious reasons)-needless to say, the "Oh, I'll pay you back" still has NOT happened! She thought that WISHES was "okay" for a fireworks show and stated that Magic Kingdom was her least favorite park because "of all the kids everywhere"...!!!!! In the midst of all this....ummm....magic....please keep in mind that my BIL who is older than I am and still fully supported by my inlaws despite a college degree kept calling and leaving horrible message on my MIL's cell phone on how terrible it is that they are spending all HIS money on me!!!!! This would cause a torrent of tears from MIL and "force" her to rush out to buy something silly and expensive for BIL. Guilt money...
She "forgot" to bring her blood pressure medicine from home but did not realize it until days later when it dawned on her and THEN it was a HUGE deal involving calling numerous Orlando pharmacies trying to special order it, screaming at the pharmicists when they said that they couldn't accept her insurance since it was a special order, screaming-cursing-"YOU JUST WANT ME TO DIE"-ing to my FIL over the phone when he wouldn't give her a credit card number to place the medicine on; despite repeated emails and websites sent trying to get her to pick restaurants/rides/ANYTHING concerning the trip, she reassured me that "I trust your judgement!" only to get there and have her ask, "Why aren't we eating there? That looks good! Why can't we see this parade today?" She did this as well with the stuff we missed during her hours of getting ready in the morning...she just couldn't get the idea that when you get to the parks at 11am, there WILL be crowds and you WILL have to wait an awful lot more than if you rolled out of bed a bit earlier. Hmmm...what a concept!
The last day I went into the parks by myself for some meditation (not mediCAtion...I took that religiously throughout my trip!) since I had an AP (MIL did NOT) and when I arrived back at our resort at the pre-determined time for our towncar pickup back to the airport, my MIL was frantically tearing apart our room including my neatly packed luggage, looking for her I.D.
She was beyond frantic...this is where the term "manic depressive" is most appropriate. There was literally clothing EVERYWHERE, she was trying to stuff her dirty clothing in with my clothes along with all those "wonderfully thought through" sourveniers. Then after she found the missing I.D. (had packed it one of the pillow bags...of course! Makes so much sense!) and I repeatedly asked her if she was ready for baggage pickup (minutes before our towncar was scheduled to arrive), she FlIPPED out when the CM who graciously came to pick up our luggage out-of-schedule arrived!! He read the situation correctly when my MIL was coming-apart-at-the-seams and was very patient and jocular while she tried to stuff five months worth of clothing and STUFF into the torn-apart luggage...he made a harmless comment to try to reassure her that "whether people are just lazy or truly need help with their luggage...that's the beauty of luggage pickup on vacation!" and she EXPLODED!!! Thought he was calling her LAZY (hmmm...
) and she went screaming and crying and fuming into the shower and yelled at me to get out of the room...NOW!! Don't have to tell me twice!
I took my carry-on and scurried to the food court where I practiced some "deep breathing" exercises while buying some food to eat before our flight. I then went out to meet our towncar driver and advised her of the "situation". I waited about 10 minutes in the back of the towncar, nibbling cautiously on sweet potato chips, and the driver is trying to be so kind but knows that she is getting behind schedule...so I get out of the car, dreading what is before me. Halfway to our room, here come my MIL, fuming and muttering under her breath, dragging her four carry-ons that keep falling to the ground. She completely ignores me and my offer of help-rudely tells me that the driver can wait, SHE needs to eat!! UGH!! I politely tell her that we don't have time to eat right now...we need to get to the airport and that I have something for her to eat in the car...and she explodes, "Well, now you're trying to starve me!!" She proceeded to the towncar with this MAJOR attitude and took it out on the poor driver, screaming and crying that she hoped that our driver would NEVER call someone LAZY because SOME people have MEDICAL conditions and when you get OLDER, you should be treated with RESPECT! Needless to say, I kept my mouth closed and tried not to meet the driver's eyes in the rearview mirror. Halfway to the airport, the switch in my MIL's brain is flipped, and she decides this is an appropriate time to talk religion with the driver, trying to convert her!!!
I was SO embarrassed...it was SO uncomfortable. When our driver dropped us off at the airport, I managed to slip her a BIG tip and whispered, "Thank you so much for your kindness and patience!" where she replied, "No, no! YOU are the patient one...I could NEVER do it!!"
At least THAT made me smile!
It was THE trip from hell. It spoiled WDW for me. I am still emotionally scarred and actually DREAD every single moment spent in MIL's company. She is absolutely mentally sick and refuses to hear anything about it. She is a spoiled child, and I spent every minute of that trip as the parent. I will NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS EVEN IF THEY PAY FOR IT AND OFFER TO STAY AT THE GRAND FLORIDIAN ever travel with her again, especially not to my most favorite place.
The most outrageous thing is that my MIL RAVES about the trip...how much FUN we had...how she LOVES WDW...she even made me a scrapbook on it (just a printout of the pictures that I took with my digital camera) despite repeated attempts to reassure her that "Really...I don't need it since I took the pictures! REALLY!" She just wouldn't take "no" as an answer. Gee...thanks. I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Burn it in a gesture of healing?? Blow it up with fireworks to rid the evil spirits?? She has already mentioned a number of times the fact that she wants us to go back next year and take her mother, but I've already told my DH that the trip is NEVER HAPPENING!!! I actually wouldn't mind going with my DH's grandma...she's actually sane and a wonderful woman, but there is NO WAY I'm going with you-know-who!
Thanks for listening....Whew! That was alot to get off my chest!
IVY
P.S. My DH is wonderful...so different in every way from his mother....well, from his whole family, to be honest. I absolutely don't know how he turned out so...normal, sweet, and kind! He felt horrible about the trip and the way his mother treated me and acted so he took me back to WDW in August 2004 for an extended holiday with just him! It was a wonderfully relaxing and restorative vacation...and the magic is definitely back!
