Sad, but thhis resonates so much with me. My ex mother in law was always there to help when I left her abusive son. Except she wasn't. I had 3 boys, she favoured 1. She did everything she could to undermine me, even going to the local food bank to tell them we had no food (we did) so she could build a social services case against me to get my oldest son. Yeah, you read that right. Forget the others, she only wanted the one. Social services were at my door almost every week for about 2 months and found nothing, nothing. At one point, one of the workers, poking around my cupboards, etc, remarked at my chicken in the slow cooker and spanish rice in the fridge to be heated later with veggies, that we ate better than her.

She (the social worker) put me in touch with the local Boys and Girls Club and bam, after school care was sorted, and "grannie" was out.