How do you politely get your in-laws to butt out when it comes to parenting your child?
Here's the situation. My husband and I are very close to his grandmother. She lives alone, and we visit her often. The problem is she is kind of paranoid when it comes to our daughter. It's annoying to have answer the same old questions over and over.."When will her teeth come in?" (My baby is 7 months. She has been asking us since she was 4 months old) Is she sick? (After my daughter sneezes once at her house. His grandmother smokes in her garage which may be the problem, but I don't want to be rude and bring this up.) And, countless other things. Sometimes it seems like she is putting down our parenting skills.
How do I tell her to butt out in a nice way. I'm afraid that one day I'm going to blow up on her, and I don't want that to happen.
By the way, my husband and I do not smoke at all. His grandmother has never smoked around me or my child. She goes into her garage, shuts the door and smokes. When we first enter her house the smell of smoke is noticeable, though but not over powering or over offensive.
I have told his grandma what the peditrician said. About occassional sneezes, she told us it's the babies way of clearing out dust or allergens out because unlike adults babies do not have nosehairs to filter it out.
About the teeth, the peditrician says that she has seen 13 month olds without teeth, and that recent studies show that the later teeth come in, the better they will be. And yes, I have told my in-laws this a number of times.
Thanks for all the good answers. It helps that others have been through this, too.
There is no nice way. You either put up with it, or you tell her. There is no inbetween.