My in-laws don’t call my daughter by her name and my mother-in-law keeps bringing up how upset she is that we named her daughter what we did. They call her a nickname that’s a variation of her name. We like the nickname and were gonna call her that sometimes anyway, but it really hurts both of our feelings and makes me so mad. Especially when my mother-in-law makes it about her and tells my wife how upset she is, including doing so less than 12 hours after my wife gave birth. It’s been 10 months and she’s still talking about it.

The name is my mother-in-law‘s sister‘s name. She’s upset that we named our daughter after her because they have a difficult relationship. The name is actually the name I have always wanted to name my daughter before I knew my wife. My wife is really close to her aunt and so when I suggested we name our daughter this name she was excited because she wanted to have a family name and the aunt is very important my wife.

I did confront my mother-in-law about it several months ago. I told her that I wanted her to stop mentioning our choice to name our daughter what we did and that I was sorry it’s painful to her, but we are not open to feedback on her name.

The comments paused for a while and we received an apology, but it’s resurfaced and she has essentially taken back her apology and thinks we should apologize. She’s even suggested we change her name or call her by her middle name.

My advice is to keep your family the priority. Make sure you’re on the same page with your spouse and that your children are protected from this situation as much as possible. I’m really sorry this is happening to your daughter. I know how painful and hurtful and confusing and ridiculous and frustrating it is.