Toddler Won’t Stop Crying After Mother-in-Law Moves In, Dad Discovers the Disturbing Truth
Any parent will tell you that taking care of a toddler is one of the hardest jobs in the world. The “terrible twos” hit, and once angelic babies become tiny tantrum machines. When Joe Greenberg’s son, Noah, started acting up, he was thankful that his mother-in-law, Celeste, offered to help. But after Celeste moved in and Noah’s behavior became worse, Joe knew he needed to take matters into his own hands. However, what he discovered was darker and more disturbing than he could have ever imagined.
Joe and Daisy Greenberg lived in Brooklyn, New York. They met at Tulane University in New Orleans, where Daisy was from, and had moved to the Big Apple after graduating. Scientific and methodical, Joe was doing his PhD in Biochemistry, while the more creative Daisy was a photographer. The Greenbergs had been married for five years, and now they had a two-year-old son called Noah. Their little family was thriving, and it felt like everything had come together for them. They didn’t realize their lives were about to start falling apart.
When Noah was born two years earlier, Joe and Daisy had a hard time adjusting to life as new parents. They were used to being able to do whatever they wanted, enjoying the Brooklyn nightlife and going to trendy events. With a baby, all their priorities had changed. Now that Noah was two, they felt like they finally had the parenting thing down, sharing the workload equally. However, they didn’t realize he was about to reach a stage that would be more challenging than anything they’d ever experienced.
Although Joe had read the parenting books, he didn’t realize just how difficult things would get when Noah became a toddler. Noah was curious about everything and learning all the time, but he also never stayed still, was often frustrated, and had temper tantrums almost daily. Joe and Daisy came from very different backgrounds and had some conflicting views on parenting. Noah’s new challenging behavior had led to some fierce arguments, and they were both at their wits’ end. Little did they know, the worst was yet to come.
The worst thing about Noah’s new stage was the sleep regression. Joe and Daisy had gotten used to a better sleeping pattern after the newborn stage, but now Noah was sleeping for one or two hours at a time and then waking up and screaming. It was exhausting. As Joe sat in the lab, desperately trying to work on a paper, his eyes kept closing and the words blurred on the screen. Something needed to be done; he just didn’t know what. Across town at her studio, Daisy was having the same thought. Unfortunately, her solution was only going to bring more trouble.
When the Greenbergs got home that day, they had a long talk. Daisy thought she might have found the answer to their problems.
“Joe, honey, we’re not coping and we need help. What if my mom comes to stay with us just for a month or two? She’s great with kids and she could stay in the guest room. She’d love to help out.”
Joe was hesitant. He didn’t know his mother-in-law very well, but he knew she was a strange woman. However, at this point, he was willing to try anything. Had he listened to his gut, he might have been able to protect his son from what was to come. Daisy scheduled her mom’s arrival from New Orleans for the following week. Joe knew his wife and her mom had a complicated relationship, and he wanted to be supportive. He worked hard to get the guest room ready to welcome her.
Daisy was feeling positive about the decision. Her mom had always wanted more contact with her grandson, and Daisy hoped they could put the past behind them and just focus on Noah. She knew her mom had some old-fashioned and unusual beliefs, but she was grateful for any help she could get. Daisy was about to learn that was a huge mistake.
Celeste arrived the following Friday. She was in her sixties with long, graying hair and was dressed in long, flowing clothes and draped in scarves. She wore a large crucifix around her neck. Joe took her bags as she swept into their chic loft apartment.
“Oh dear, Daisy, this is where you live? No wonder the child is unhappy. There’s no spiritual energy here. No matter, we’ll soon have it fixed up.”
She assured them in an ethereal voice. Joe looked at Daisy doubtfully, and she shrugged. They were in this now, and there was nothing they could do. Celeste was staying for the next eight weeks.
For the first few days, everything seemed to be going well. Noah took to Celeste immediately, and she appeared to be embracing her role as grandmother. She took some of the shifts when he woke up in the night, played with him while Joe and Daisy were working, and she even helped with the cooking and cleaning. Joe felt like his brain was clear for the first time in weeks after finally having a decent night’s sleep, and it was all because of his mother-in-law.
However, it wouldn’t be long before Celeste’s presence started making him feel uneasy. As he got to know Celeste better, Joe couldn’t help but notice more and more strange things about her. Yes, she was very religious and spiritual—he already knew that from Daisy—but this was something different. He often noticed her muttering under her breath or plucking the air with her fingers as if trying to grab something no one else could see. She disappeared sometimes for hours and would come back with wide eyes and a knowing smile, but would never say where she had been. Joe tried to be tolerant, but there was something about her that made him uncomfortable.
It turned out that he wasn’t the only one. On the days when he wasn’t at daycare, Celeste took care of Noah. Daisy was happy to let her mom take the reins, but Joe was less enthused. It seemed to him that Noah’s behavior was getting more challenging than ever. He was tearful and angry, his tantrums only increasing in magnitude. Celeste would pick him up and mutter softly in his ear, but Noah would struggle to get away, kicking at his grandmother. She only smiled knowingly and held him more tightly. Joe started to wonder what she was like with him when he and Daisy weren’t around. It wouldn’t be long until he found out exactly what was going on.
As the weeks passed, Noah’s behavior started deteriorating even further. He was acting out more than ever. Joe and Daisy even got a call from Noah’s daycare assistant to let them know that he was struggling. His sleep was also getting worse. Joe had decided he wasn’t keen for Celeste to care for Noah in the night anymore, and Daisy was working on a big project, so he was getting up five or six times per night. The sleep-deprived dad was exhausted, and nothing seemed to be helping.
Something felt off. It seemed as though Noah’s decline had correlated exactly with Celeste’s arrival, and Joe was worried her influence was having a negative effect on his son. Noah’s wailing always seemed to intensify whenever she was around, almost as though he was scared of her. Joe was determined to uncover just what Celeste was doing with Noah, but he wanted to share his concerns with his wife first. After all, Celeste was her mom; maybe she would understand the situation better.
Later that evening, when Celeste had already gone to bed, Joe broached the subject with Daisy.
“I’m a little worried about your mom spending so much time with Noah. His tantrums only seem to be getting worse. Yes, he was a handful before, but he doesn’t seem happy anymore. I’ve watched the way your mom is with him, and it’s not normal. I don’t want her exposing him to any of her strange spiritual beliefs.”
To Joe’s alarm, Daisy looked furious.
“How dare you criticize my mom? After all she’s done for us, dropping everything to come and care for our child, and you have the nerve to suggest she’s doing something harmful to Noah? He was acting out before she came; that’s why she came to live with us!”
She said angrily. Joe tried to reason with Daisy, but she was very upset and wouldn’t hear a word against her mother. He was surprised, as she’d always complained about her mom before, but he guessed they must have gotten closer with her visit. After their conversation, Joe realized that Noah wasn’t the only person being influenced by Celeste. Daisy had clearly come under her spell as well, and now Joe felt more alone than ever.
Noah continued to scream and cry for hours on end. Daisy became snappy and withdrawn, and Celeste held dominion over the household. Joe was a man of science, and her strange beliefs and habits seemed to be permeating every aspect of their lives. He noticed little bundles of herbs appearing on shelves and notes written in an alphabet he didn’t recognize hidden in drawers. Joe was starting to feel scared.
Joe’s fears reached a new level when he got home from work the next day and overheard Daisy and her mother speaking in urgent whispers in Noah’s room. Joe couldn’t hear everything they were saying, but he got the gist.
“This curse is stronger than I’ve ever seen it. I’m doing everything I can, but the demons have him in a chokehold.”
He heard Celeste hiss, and then the sound of Daisy weeping. They continued conferring, and he caught words like “possessed” and “exorcism.” Joe felt deeply disturbed. He didn’t know much about Daisy’s childhood, but he was starting to feel like there was a lot she had hidden from him.
The next day was especially challenging. Celeste insisted on taking Noah to mass with her, and Daisy joined them. Joe spent the time cleaning the house and found even more of Celeste’s strange little bundles. Things were getting weirder by the day. That evening, Noah’s wails reached a deafening pitch, and Joe decided it was time to act. He needed concrete proof that something strange was going on. He knew if he confronted Celeste and Daisy, they would just deny it. He needed to follow his intuition and catch them in the act.
Joe decided to set up a nanny cam so he could secretly observe his mother-in-law when she was alone with Noah in the nursery. As a scientist, he went about things in a rational, methodical manner. Something was going on in his home that he didn’t understand, so he would undertake an experiment and gather evidence. The tiny camera was inside a stuffed animal that he placed on Noah’s shelf, pretending he’d bought him a new toy.
He reviewed the footage the next day. What he saw made his blood run cold. Joe stuck the USB stick from the nanny cam into his laptop and waited, his heart pounding. The footage started streaming a few seconds later. Joe watched his mother-in-law sneaking into Noah’s nursery after midnight and performing rituals more bizarre than he could have imagined. She appeared to be chanting incantations while waving smoky bundles of herbs around him. Noah looked frightened, struggling against her grasp as she held him tightly. At one point, Celeste seemed to be tracing strange symbols on his skin with her fingers. The image sent shivers down Joe’s spine.
Joe was appalled. Yes, Celeste wasn’t doing anything to physically hurt Noah, but what she was doing was deeply disturbing. Noah was just a toddler; why was she subjecting him to her strange spiritual beliefs? And did Daisy know this was going on? After the conversation he had overheard, Joe had to believe that she did. How could he have let this go on under his own roof?
Now that he had seen Celeste’s behavior with his own eyes, he needed to investigate further. What else had his mother-in-law been getting up to? Celeste was out, so he tiptoed into the guest room. He hadn’t been in it since his mother-in-law had arrived, and he was shocked to see the transformation. The walls were now plastered with icons and images of saints, with more bundles of strange-smelling herbs and strings of clay beads on the dresser. This was a type of religious belief that Joe had never seen before, and he didn’t understand it. He and Daisy had agreed to raise Noah in a humanist home, not with any of these rituals and superstitions. He didn’t want his son to be exposed to it.
More than anything, Joe was worried for Noah’s safety. He was sure Daisy would never do anything to hurt her son, but he couldn’t be so sure about Celeste. He was sure everything she did was with Noah’s best interests at heart, but if her strange beliefs about curses and evil spirits were anything to go by, she was unpredictable. And then there was the fact that Noah cried every time she went near him. Even if she wasn’t hurting him, she was definitely scaring him. He needed to put a stop to all of this immediately.
When Celeste and Daisy got home with Noah later that day, Joe was ready to confront them. He had the nanny cam footage ready and waiting. There was no getting out of it this time.
“Celeste, this has gone on long enough. I know you’ve been involving Noah in your spiritual practices without discussing it with me. I’m not comfortable with it, and I won’t have it any longer.”
He said heavily. Daisy went to interject, but he held up a hand.
“Daisy, I respect you and your mom, but Noah is our child. We have to make these decisions together, and you’ve been cutting me out.”
Tears started pouring down Daisy’s cheeks, and she ran to Joe. He put his arms around her protectively.
“It’s okay, honey. Please just explain to me what’s been going on. I’ve heard you two talking about curses, and it’s scaring me.”
Daisy took a deep breath and began to explain.
“I’ve never told you this, but my family has always believed in a curse that affects the male line. I was always skeptical of it, but when Noah started being so difficult, I started to wonder. When I brought my mom here, I thought she could help us.”
Joe looked at her in disbelief. Celeste took over the explanation.
“Joe, I know it’s hard for you to understand, but there are evil forces at work all around us. In my religion, we know that. We see another realm. Noah may be a Greenberg, but he has inherited our family’s curse. I have simply been trying to free him from its clutches. The rituals are a necessary part of the cleansing.”
She explained as if it made all the sense in the world. Joe looked pleadingly at Daisy. Surely his wonderful, rational wife could see that this was absurd. Daisy buried her face in his chest and gave another heaving sob. He knew what he needed to do.
“Celeste, I’m sorry, but I can’t allow these rituals to continue. You need to leave now.”
Celeste’s eyes widened in surprise.
“But Joe, I’m only trying to help Noah! I’m doing this for him!”
“I appreciate your intentions, but this is not the way. Noah is our son, and we will decide what is best for him.”
Joe replied, his tone unwavering. Daisy watched in silence, torn between her loyalty to her mother and her duty as a mother herself. Deep down, she knew that Joe was right. She couldn’t continue to ignore the signs of distress in Noah, no matter how much it pained her.
In the weeks that followed, the atmosphere in the house shifted, and Noah slowly returned to his cheerful, curious self. It seemed as though his earlier tantrums had just been a phase. The so-called curse had lifted. It didn’t take Daisy long to realize she’d been sucked in again by her mom’s superstitions and returned to a more grounded sense of reality. She and Joe attended couples therapy to process what had happened over the last few months and were feeling stronger than ever. Now, all they needed to do was figure things out with Celeste, and everything would be perfect.
Once they’d all had time to cool off, Daisy reached out to her mom. She knew that her mom had only been trying to help, and she felt guilty that things had ended in a hostile way. She and Joe met with Celeste and laid everything out on the table. They wanted her to have a relationship with Noah, unburdened by curses and rituals.
Celeste acknowledged her mistakes, expressing remorse for the way she had sought to control the situation. She still held her own beliefs, but she promised not to force them on the Greenbergs. It felt like a turning point.
When Noah Greenberg hit the terrible twos, Joe and Daisy were desperate for some assistance. When the help arrived in the form of Daisy’s mom, Joe was nothing but grateful. However, once he realized that his mother-in-law was performing strange rituals on his son, he knew he had to act. We’re glad that the Greenberg family was able to move past this turbulent episode and focus on Noah’s happiness and well-being. We know Celeste was acting with the best intentions, and we’re sure she’ll find a way to have a positive, nurturing relationship with her grandson.
