My Mom thinks its acceptable to go everywhere dressed in nightgown. She fell last week and hurt her arm. lucky no cast no surgery she's 74 and a narcissist . Well she plans to wear her nightgowns for the next 4 to 6 weeks. She went to the drs office the drugs store etc in her nightgown and flip flops. This is un acceptable to me. she lives with me my son and my husband and they are VERY uncomfortable with this situation. she can change her jammies and underwear on make her coffee wash her dishes etc......everything but put some real clothes on ??? my mom LOVES SYMPOTHY and I KNOW that's what this is about but it has the OPPOSITE effect I don't have sympathy for her its just making me mad, because I never heard of anyone with a HURT arm staying in their jammies for a month and a half. Its making my husband even madder than me, He KNOWS she's doing it for attention and he's very uncomfortable in his own home. I told her this is un acceptable but she said she doesn't care. What else can I do to get her to put some clothes on ?????
As several of us have said, you need to get her out of your house ASAP. Hugs to you!
Good luck - it sounds like your hands are full with her. Does she have to live with you? I see a recipe for disaster down the road for your family. She sounds like a handful.
Say that since the only place you're allowed to wear nightgowns or pajamas all day is in a nursing home, that it is obvious to the two of you that a nursing home is where she needs to go. Say "You have ten minutes to put on your clothes and behave rationally or the two of you will immediately begin a search of nursing homes and you won't be put on a waiting list, that the first home you call that has a bed available is where you'll take her.
The threat of a nursing home ought to do it, but you have to mean it. She's being extremely disrespectful to the two of you and I'm sure it makes your son very uncomfortable to have her running around in her nightclothes. Wearing her nightclothes in public could get her picked up for indecent exposure.
Remind yourselves that she's not in charge, the two of you are. You need to remind yourself of this fact as you confront her. And by the way, it would be even more effective if you have a list of nursing homes to hand her when you have this discussion - with the ones you've chosen checked off.
Tell her she has ten minutes, no more to get dressed in street clothes and that wearing her nightclothes around the house during the day and to stores is absolutely forbidden "or else...".
Your mother-in-law is acting like a spoiled brat - show her there are negative consequences for her behavior. Good luck!
If possible (through either cunning or deceit), switch to PJs. If she fell, it could be that PJs are safer. You're less likely to step on them when going up-and-down steps. You're less likely to get tangled in them.
( she owns them and wears them all the time normally ). This is PURELY for attention. I was already at my wits end before this happened.
Escalate, if she is wandering the parking lot of the store in jammies and cannot find your car, maybe someone will call 911 for a welfare check up on her. Or, to save fire/ambulance from coming out, call 911(police) to find your mother who may be lost after you come back in about an hour, she may get mad enough to stop this behavior. OR, she can get the professional mental assessment she needs. Be brave, do this only as a last resort because something might really be wrong with her and it comes out only expressed as attention seeking.
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