“What was that about? Why did you take so long? You haven’t even held Matthew yet.”
I sighed.
“My mom wants us to name him Oscar. After her grandfather. Apparently, it’s some tradition of all firstborn sons; they all weigh exactly the same.”
Jenna’s face darkened.
A woman holding her baby | Source: Midjourney
“We already have a name, Nathan,” she said. “We agreed on Matthew because of my father.”
“I know, I know!” I exclaimed. “But maybe we could consider it as a middle name or something like that?”
Before my wife could even sit with the suggestion, her mother, Nora, walked in, her face bright with excitement. I wasn’t surprised. She lived about five minutes away from the hospital, so I knew she would come over as soon as the baby was born. I was sure Jenna had texted her while I was talking to my mother.
A smiling older woman | Source: Midjourney
“Oh, he’s beautiful!” she cried, rushing over to take the baby from Jenna.
As she cradled him in her arms, Jenna explained the situation.
“Nathan’s mother wants us to name him Oscar. But we’ve already decided on a name.”
Nora’s expression shifted from joy to something a bit more serious.
“Oscar,” she repeated as if testing the name on her tongue. “Isn’t that your brother’s name?”
An older woman with a serious expression | Source: Midjourney
I nodded.
“And my great-grandfather,” I said.
She gave me a hard look. I knew she was wondering about her late husband’s name. We had decided long before Jenna’s father had passed that our son would be named after him.
Just then, my mother walked in.
A close up of an older woman | Source: Midjourney
“Let me see baby Oscar,” she chimed as she walked over to Nora.
“What?” Jenna asked. “His name is Matthew.”
“Your son will be named Oscar, or he won’t get a single penny from my will,” my mother said, her tone completely different from when we spoke on the phone.
“Excuse me?” I asked, stunned.
A shocked man | Source: Midjourney
“Our entire family’s fortune was built by my grandfather. The maple syrup business? All because of him. If you don’t honor him by passing down his name, then you don’t deserve his legacy.”
Jenna and I stared at her. Nora held tightly onto the baby.
This was supposed to be a happy moment in our lives, but now it felt like a battleground. I could see my wife’s frustration boiling over.
“Mom,” I said. “Let’s just talk about this…”
A maple syrup warehouse | Source: Midjourney
“No,” my mother said stubbornly.
Then my wife turned to me, her eyes blazing.
“Nathan, we agreed on a name. I’m not changing it just because of some family tradition that only surfaced now.”
I took a deep breath. I understood where Jenna was coming from, but I also understood where my mother was coming from, despite how misguided it was.
“Please…” my mother said her eyes misting up. “It would mean the world to me. And it’s not just about the money. It’s about the legacy.”
A close up of a frowning woman | Source: Midjourney
“How about a compromise?” I suggested. “We use the name we picked as his first name, and Oscar will be his middle name.”
Jenna hesitated. I knew that she hated being backed into a corner like this.
“Please,” I said softly. “Just think about how much this would mean to the both of you…”
Jenna looked down at our baby who was now asleep in her arms again, after Nora had given him back to her daughter.
A woman holding her newborn baby | Source: Midjourney
“Fine, but only as a middle name.”
My mother and I sighed in relief. For now, at least, the battle was over.
“I hope he has my grandfather’s eyes,” my mother said.
“You can see when he wakes up,” Jenna said, reaching out for her.
As I looked at my family, I was relieved that everything seemed okay for now. But I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of unease. I still had the note in my pocket, the one where my mom had somehow predicted Matthew’s exact weight and height.
But I guess it’s just a reminder that some family traditions run deeper than we might ever understand.
A man holding his newborn baby | Source: Midjourney
What would you have done?
If you enjoyed this story, here’s another one for you |
My MIL Came to My Wedding in a White Dress and Announced Her Engagement – I Outplayed Her at Her Own Wedding
When Tina and Jim get engaged, his mother tries to have an active role in the wedding planning, frustrating the couple. On the day of the wedding, Beth upstages the couple with a personal announcement, leaving Tina to plan her own revenge in time.
When Jim and I got engaged, his mother, Beth, wasted no time in meddling. From day one, she bombarded us with her opinions.
A close-up of a couple | Source: Midjourney
“I have so many ideas for your wedding, Tina,” Beth said. “I’ve been planning Jim’s wedding for years now!”
“But this isn’t just my wedding, Mom,” Jim said to his mother.
She waved him off and continued to enthusiastically go on about floral arrangements.
Women in a flower shop | Source: Midjourney
I knew then that I’d have to shut it down if I hoped to have a say in my own wedding.
“Your mom will tone down, right?” I asked Jim when we went for a walk one day. “This isn’t going to lead to a fight? I don’t have to actually tell her to back off?”
Jim chuckled and squeezed my hand.
A couple holding hands and walking | Source: Midjourney
“My mother is a lot, love,” he said. “But she’s not stupid. She will take the hint.”
But of course, Beth didn’t take the hint.
She asked to meet me at a coffee shop so that she could go on about the venues, flowers, and even the cake.
An interior of a coffee shop | Source: Midjourney
“Vanilla is the timeless option,” she said, sipping her coffee. “Don’t do chocolate, or even worse, peanut butter. And don’t do naked cakes. They’re not cute.”
