|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mother-In-Law Mall
A place to find great gifts!
and products related to mothers-in-law and other family members.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mother-In-Law Stories
Archives 10/7/00
<--Previous Archive
Next Archive -->
 |
My MIL and I get along
pretty well, except when it comes to the way she treats HER OWN son.
At every family get together, and pretty much every single conversation
between my husband and his mommy, she always treats him as if he is
still a baby. My husband says it's because she feels guilty
about ignoring him as a child, while favoring his 3 sisters.
Regardless, he is 30 years old, and he should demand to be treated
like an adult. It really sickens me when MIL and two of my SIL's
comment on his weight (he is a big man, but they are big women)!
Last year, I'm not sure if it was Thanksgiving or Christmas, MIL commented
on my husband's "fat ass". In front of God and everyone in the
room, I said, "I guess it takes one to know one, right Mom?"
She shut up. I felt guilty for saying that, so I apologized
for doing that in front of everyone. She said she understood,
and that things were okay between us. I did, however, warn her
that if she ever insulted, or spoke harshly to my husband again, I
would not hesitate to do it again. She said, "well, he's used
to it. It doesn't seem to bother him." I responded that
when we go home, he does get emotional about the comments about his
weight and other things the family finds "distasteful." I didn't
want to mention that he cried on my shoulder because of this, but
I did make her very aware that it does affect him, and that the front
was put on only for her and his sisters, but he lets it down with
me, because he knows I am there to comfort him.
Funny thing, I haven't heard her comment on his weight lately.
Plus the fact that in front of me, I'm not sure if she does this without
me around, rather than telling him what he SHOULD do, she says, "May
I make a suggestion?" Progress is Great!
9/30
|
|
Help Question:
In a lot of the postings I have noticed different symbols such as
:) What does this mean and is there somewhere I can go to check
out a list of them: if such a thing exists?
MIL Stories Answer: These strange keystrokes (sometimes called
emoticons) are meant to display the writer's emotions. They
always require you to tilt your head 90 degrees to the left (as if
you were laying down on your left side). As seen from that angle,
the keystrokes suddenly make more sense. In the particular one
you mention, :) , you see a smiling face (2 eyes and the mouth).
Often, the nose is included so it looks like this :-)
The fun part comes when you try to add a flare of creativity to see
just how expressive you can get. New ones emerge every day,
such as the sly wink ; ) and the surprise (or laughter)
:-o . There are a tremendous number of web sites devoted to
collecting complete listing. One of the more extensive listings
can be found at http://www.parscom.cz/clients/smilies/index.html
. On the lighter side (good for a laugh) you may also want to
take a look at Dave Barry's collection at http://www.randomhouse.com/features/davebarry/emoticon.html
We will update our help pages with some information on this topic
soon.
9/30
|
|
We were without our computer
for almost a week, and I missed this website! Big mistake --
having the in-laws here for both our birthdays, my husband's and mine.
It wasn't a good vibe, and we are NOT going to let them railroad us
into making this a "tradition" -- one of my MIL's favorite
words. Next year, we'll go out -- just the two of us.
A question for you: does anyone else feel taken aback when your DH's
parents call him by some babyish pet name, on his birthday and at
other times (like "Johnnykins") they used when he was a child?
Maybe I'm a real b** for not thinking that's just really sweet.
Anyway, I hope I don't see them again AT LEAST until Thanksgiving.
9/28
***NOTE: Please feel free to respond to this (using
our mother-in-law stories submission page) if you
have any advice to share. Reference this story as "DH Called
Pet Name?" in your response.
RESPONSE: In response to dh called pet names.
My dh's parents call him by the nickname they gave him as a 6month
old, "possum". What sort of a name is that for someone in their
mid 30s? After a few years of this I spoke up and told them
I thought this practice was ridiculous, only to be told this was their
way of reminding him that they loved him and would not stop doing
it. I have since decided to give in gracefully, and let them
go, even though I cringe every time they do it. Occasionally,
I have been know to call him possum in a very sarcastic manner (just
for the fun of it) and he just says "yeh, right love" and continues
on. I think them using their pet name embarrasses him at times,
but he does nothing about it. It sounds as though you may have
to follow my example of grin and bear it. I hope all goes well
for you.
9/29
RESPONSE: in response to "dh's pet names"
After we'd been married for a little more than a year, dh's Mother
began occasionally, but regularly, calling him "lover", as in "hello,
Lover" or "bye, Lover". She had never done this before, and
has continued to do this for years. She isn't British, and no
one else in dh's family refers to anyone else by this term.
I think she's doing it just to annoy me. So far I've ignored
it when it happens, but have told dh that I think it's strange.
He said that she never used to call him that before we were married,
even as a small child.
9/29
|
|
Shortly after I had my
first baby, I was speaking by phone to my MIL. I was relating
the current state of affairs in my home and things were not great.
My child was colicky and therefore she screamed all day and most of
the night. She also projectile vomited almost every time I fed
her, which meant that I had an enormous amount of cleaning and laundry
to do in order to clean up after her. I was subsequently sleep
deprived and physically and mentally exhausted. I would have
been nervous enough just being a new mom, but I also had a child who
was having her own afore mentioned difficulties. I myself was
experiencing anemia due to my pregnancy. We had very little
in the way of financial resources, so we could not afford to hire
outside help. My family lived nowhere near us and was not available
to come over and help out at that time. My dh worked full time
and was attending classes at night. He had to study on weekends
in order not to fail his courses, and he wasn't getting enough sleep
for obvious reasons. My MIL lived nearby, and I was hoping she
would volunteer to come over and help me out a little. I was
desperate, and even an hour or two would have been a godsend.
Instead, the only words that came out of her mouth were, "Pull yourself
together, you are making MY SON nervous".
9/23
RESPONSE: This is for the mom with the colicky baby and
the MIL that said that she made HER SON nervous.
Oh, how insensitive of your MIL not to come over and help you out,
and making that outrageous statement. I don't know why some
MIL's are so unsupportive ... mine were kind of the same. We
moved when my son was 3 months old. Of course, they came to
visit right away when we had everything still boxed up and I couldn't
find a thing. I was nursing my little one. We went to a restaurant
that night and I took the baby to the bathroom for nursing and changing,
10pd baby, diaper bag, this and that, squeezing myself through all
the chairs and tables. I struggled to get back to my seat when
I was done, and all 3, MIL, FIL, and husband just kept staring at
me. Not one got up to give me a hand. It was obvious that
I had a hard time getting through. AAAaaawwww, what jerks!
9/25
RESPONSE: This response is for the woman with the colicky
baby who's MIL said, "You're making my son nervous."
Oh, such fond memories when I read this (I am being sarcastic of course).
My situation was similar to yours. My baby was colicky, my husband
got pneumonia a week after our son was born, and then when he finally
shook his illness, he traveled week to week for six months.
Do you think my MIL and FIL ever offered to help? NO WAY.
Of course, they haven't liked me since the day I married their son.
In fact, three months before the wedding, they got mad at me (what
else is new) and told my H that it wasn't too late to call off the
wedding!!!!!! When they come to our house, I have to wait on
them at all times, or I am bad mouthed for months later. One
time, my H and I took them out to dinner, and they said "Thanks" but
only to my husband. I am a stay at home mom so they must think
I don't contribute financially! Also, when we got married, no
wedding gift or a card for us. When my BIL and SIL got married,
they got new living room furniture!! Here's the best one ...
my M and D and my H's M and D DESPISE each other, so therefore, we
can have no family get-togethers (birthday parties for my son, Christmas
etc). I have to have two b-day parties for my son. One
for his parents and one for mine.
9/29
|
|
I am going to be seeing
my MIL this week, and I just wanted to get something off my chest.
I think the word to use to describe her is competitive. No matter
what topic we get onto and no matter who brought up the topic, she
has to be top dog. If I have a cold, she has a worse cold.
If it is snowing, raining, etc., where I live, then it is snowing
or raining harder where she lives. Her labors/deliveries were
worse than mine, and she'd probably argue about the quality of the
conceptions if we ever got onto the topic. Her headaches are
worse than mine. My problems/accomplishments at work don't hold
a candle to hers. Her hours are longer than mine. Her
schedule is busier than mine. Her commute is worse than mine.
She gets better bargains than I do. She is more tired than I
am. My expenses are nothing compared to hers. She had
a harder time raising her kids than I am having raising mine.
We recently toured the same town that she had vacationed in and I
was told that I didn't really SEE it properly because I didn't visit
the exact same sights she did when she was there, and I really messed
up because I didn't dine at the same extraordinary restaurants that
she did. This really gets on my nerves (as you can see).
Any suggestions?
9/23
***NOTE: Please feel free to respond to this (using
our mother-in-law stories submission page) if you
have any advice to share. Reference this story as "My Best
Not Good Enough" in your response.
RESPONSE: my best not good enough
Ignore her. At least she isn't calling you names. Selective
hearing is great.
9/25
RESPONSE: This is in response to "My best not good enough".
This is something I would say after listening to all that you wrote
about. Next time she says one of her usual come backs tell her;
"Oh yes, I forgot you are the expert on everything!" It
will either shut the old bat up or give you something to "discuss".
Good Luck.
9/28
RESPONSE: Re: My Best is Not Good Enough.
Oh boy, I got a chuckle from your post because my MIL is a lot like
yours. She really gets into the one-up stuff too. When
we have a discussion of religion she even tells me things that I know
are not in the Bible. She has a story to match every story and
go one better. Ugh! It is frustrating. She re-writes
the past to make it even MORE interesting too. I used to get
mad, but now I just say, "Oh really? That is SO fascinating!
Tell me more!" She looks at me like I am a nut and moves on
to other topics.
9/28
RESPONSE: This is for the woman whose MIL is competitive,
has the worst colds, goes to the best restaurants, always one-upping
her DIL.
Try this. The next time she gets into one of her "Anything you
can do, I can do better" jags, tell her about a yeast infection you
once had and ask her if she's had any worse sexually transmitted diseases.
9/28
RESPONSE: This is a response for the competitive MIL
post:
My MIL is short, and rotund (I look gooooooood, I am tall and in very
good shape, --- grin --- at 40) ... She always boasts, and brags loudly
about all kinds of stuff. Her specialty is to mention how my
husband's best friend married a doctor, each time she visits (I am
a foreigner, and I am still trying to catch up in this society with
my education). I think she is jealous of me because of my looks,
because don't matter how much she tries she's never going to grow
any taller! What helps me to deal with mine is to just look
at her, and pretend that she is the Ooompa Loompa (sorry but I don't
know the correct spelling for the character) from Mr. Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory.
9/28
|
|
How can you convince your
future mother in law to stop treating her son, who is in his mid 20s,
like a child? She always makes his lunch, his favorite dinner,
and does his laundry. It seems she can't accept the fact that
he is quite capable of doing these things for himself. And because
she is doing all of these things, he may expect his future wife to
do them as well. She constantly offers help without asking us.
Therefore, it isn't help to us but rather an interference to our relationship.
We are moving out together and she has arranged to be there a few
days to help with cleaning, moving etc. We don't know what to
do. If we refuse kindly, she usually makes us feel guilty about
it. How do we set boundaries early on, and let her know we are
capable of handling things on our own? After all, it is our
life. How do we let her know that we appreciate her help, however
sometimes it is an interference rather than help she is offering.
9/26
|
|
When I was 7 months pregnant
with my first child we were visiting my husband's parents. I
have red hair and I was in my early 20's, not a little nervous about
the coming birth. His mother was a nurse. She said to
me - "We used to hate to see redheads come into the delivery room,
because they always bleed so much." !!?? I wish I would
have had the presence of mind to tell her how that made me feel.
I have never forgotten or understood that remark! The good thing
about this incident is, whenever I talk to a pregnant friend I always
am very careful not to say anything upsetting. We can all learn
lessons about how NOT to act. I am a mother-in-law myself and
my son-in-law is very dear to me. When he finishes talking to
me on the phone he always says, "Bye Mom, I love you."
I hope I never give him or my other children cause to send in a story
about me!!
9/26
|
|
After 35 years of marriage,
the truth finally has been spoken. My MIL and FIL have hated
me since day one. I have not missed one birthday, anniversary,
fathers day, mothers day or Christmas, painstakingly buying just the
right gift and card for my husband to send from the both of us.
He is an only child. We have always lived away from them, because
of his military career. When we would travel to his home, they
would be hateful to me when he wasn't around. I tried to tell
my husband that they didn't "like me", but he would always say "that's
just the way they are" ... Ha, ha ... My MIL has thrown
hostess gifts I have given her in my face, telling me she doesn't
like it, doesn't eat it, or it's not the right size. Just plain
rude. So many things, so little time to say it all. NOT
ONE phone call or visit to his parents have ever been initiated by
their son. I have always reminded him to call his folks.
Sometimes we even argued, when it would be weeks and I said they were
"old" and he needs to pay them some more attention.
So now, finally, the game is over. His parents are both in their
90s and mean as hell. They are trying to stay out of the nursing
home, and he has taken 3 weeks off from his job and away from me to
care for them, setting up the house and getting help. The worst
part is, he is actually changing his Mother's diaper and wiping her
bottom. This makes me physically ill. I can't believe
she would allow this, or his father.
Anyway, he was home about 2 days and he called and scheduled me to
fly there. Since I have never said an ugly word to his parents,
still all the while knowing they hated me, I wanted to go and help
out as much as he wanted me to. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED? His
father said I was not welcome there and shouldn't come. He said
my MIL and he despised me from day one, and made his feelings for
me "crystal clear to my husband". Hubbie had to tell me, but
I didn't press him for the details of what they didn't like about
me, I don't want to know.
At least, after all these years, Hubbie can quit calling me "paranoid".
So I made it crystal clear to him that under no circumstances will
I go to the funeral of either of them. He agreed.
I feel so awful and used for all these years. For all the DIL's
out there, please know that sometimes, like in my case, NOTHING you
do can make them like you. NOTHING AT ALL. I'm still living
this horrible mess, and they have their son all to themselves.
That's my story. Thanks for listening.
9/26
RESPONSE: Re: "They Hated Me from the Start"
You sound like a lovely person. It's possible that they would
have hated anyone their son married. Keep in mind that hatred
is always ignorance. I know it hurts because you love their
son, but their rejection of you is more about their lack of respect
for their son's choices and his happiness. That may be hard
to accept initially, but if your child married someone who was decent
and made them happy wouldn't that make you happy? Your husband
may be feeling guilty right now because you had to help him be a good
son, but have a serious talk with him about putting them in a nursing
home that he feels comfortable with, or even one near your home, so
that he's not away for long periods and so that you can make sure
he's not being overburdened by caring for them.
9/27
|
|
Both my MIL and FIL are
overbearing, insensitive and disrespectful (here's an example - at
our wedding reception, which my parents hosted, they brought along
booze despite my parents' no-alcohol policy). And it's only
gotten worse from there during the past 6 years. Problem now
is that I'm expecting my first child in 2 months. They want
to come and "help" me for the last month - before, during
and post-delivery! First of all, if I want help, it will be
from my OWN parents, not them, since we've never been on good terms.
Secondly, they engage in non-stop criticizing and complaining on every
visit - this isn't what I'll be in the mood for at this time in my
life. Lastly, when my H & I asked them to give us a few
weeks to get settled in, they argued for hours and basically said
"no." My H has promised that they will not come until at least
a week after the baby's due, but in my latest conversation with them
they indicated their original plans hadn't changed. My only
thought is to move myself into an apartment or motel for some peace
and sanity, even if it means my H has to miss the delivery himself.
They don't respect limits or boundaries, and they do have a key to
our house (courtesy of H - "for convenience"). The kicker is
that I'm not "allowed" to discuss any of their plans with them, since
asking them to wait a few weeks makes them feel "unwelcome," so my
H has decided that he will be the one to coordinate everything (despite
his poor track record in the past). He is simply unable to stand
up to them, but those are other stories ...
I'm still waiting to find out what's going to happen, but I refuse
to subject myself and my child to their unreasonable demands anymore.
9/26
|
|
While I'm aware that most
of us here believe that each of us has the planet's worst mother in
law, I'll lay heavy odds mine is tops. The woman is as self
absorbed an ogre as has ever shook the planet. I married seven
and a half years ago to a woman from Colombia. I flew down there
from my then home in the northeast US to be married. We had
to do it on the sly because dear old mom hated me. In her own
words, I was a, "f!@#$%ing gringo". But, more importantly, this
represented the first time that mother in law did not control the
goings on in the family. This just crushed her massive ego,
equaled in size only by her massive girth. But, I digress.
Immediately after marrying, I flew back home, and my new wife remained
in her house which she shared with mom and her three other sisters.
While I was readying paperwork for her permanent arrival in the US,
she revealed to mom that we married. Dear old mom exploded,
smacked her daughter in the face and threw her out of the house.
A friend put her up for the month or so that it took to get her clearance
to come stateside. In the intervening time period 'till now,
Mom has visited and lived with us, in our house, on three occasions.
The visits varied in length from 2 to 6 months. No long weekends
for her! She plants her fat ass in my house, and criticizes
me every which way but loose. When she isn't visiting she calls
and cries about the difficult financial situation she is facing, and
can we help. Yeah, right, suddenly the gringo's greenbacks don't
look so bad ... to the tune of almost $10,000 over the years.
During her most recent stay, this pompous windbag had the nerve to
tell my now 12 year old daughter, who I have since adopted, that I
am not her real father and she needn't listen to me. You can
imagine the uproar this started. Well, she left on bad terms,
threatening never to return. Guess what? Today I find
out this pain in the ass is planning a 3 month return for the Holidays
as if nothing has happened. I say no way this monster enters
my door again until I get an apology, and see a complete change of
behavior, starting with a new found respect for her son in law!
9/25
RESPONSE: Re: MIL's planned 3-month visit.
I don't blame you I wouldn't allow the old bat to return until she
apologized and behaved better also. Interestingly enough, however,
a controlling person - particularly if they are mean does not have
enough character usually to apologize. Someone as self-centered
and manipulative as your MIL would probably rather go to her grave
and never see her daughter again. Sad but true. It's especially
sad because I'm sure she realizes that she has hurt you and she obviously
doesn't care that it hurts her daughter. If your wife could
talk to her then she may behave herself and apologize. But considering
this is a woman who would slap her daughter because she didn't agree
with what she did, I wouldn't count on it. Know that you're
a better person than her, and that everyone who knows the situation
knows that. If possible encourage your wife to visit her for
a couple of weeks instead.
9/26
|
|
I have been married for
9 years. I could go on and on about my MIL. She's typical
of all that I've read here! I was pretty naive when I first
married ... but over the years she has taught me well! I've
recently found some inner strength. I am waiting for the next
episode. I plan to deal with it myself! My H has always
bowed down to his mother. The last time I packed to leave, he
began standing up for himself and me! He swears he loves me
and doesn't want to lose me. Although I love him dearly, I wonder
if love is worth more than the peace of not having my MIL in my life.
I still haven't decided.
This month brought on many birthday's in our family. My MIL
and FIL's were last month. I bought their gifts and wrapped
them. They hadn't received their gifts "on time" because they
were out of town for weeks. I left the gifts by the door for
my H to take to his parents next time he saw them. I don't go
to their home anymore, which is another story in itself!
I had no idea they were even back in town when my daughter rec'd her
birthday card from my in-laws. In it was a sarcastic remark
about not hearing from her, and there being no excuse. My daughter
(step-daughter) is a full time college student and works 30 hours
a week. She barely has time to see her boyfriend or friends.
Her father and I are proud that she's doing as well as she is.
My MIL's remark was unjust and not called for by a grandmother.
Plus, it was a lie. My daughter had talked to her dear grandmother
in recent months, and they had argued about another family member.
Guess grandma wiped that from her memory!
Next, my H received his birthday card from his parents. The
card wasn't even to "Son". In it was written "you got your gift,
dad and mom". How is that for parental love? I asked my
H what his parents gave him, he can't think of a thing. They
don't usually give a gift "just because". My daughter, my mother
and I felt so bad for the treatment of his mother, we went out and
bought him some extra gifts so he'd feel special from us. He's
lucky to have the MIL he does! My mother loves him and often
gets upset by the treatment of his own mother!
My birthday was before my daughter's. Until the two cards came,
I hadn't even realized that my loving in-law's had let my birthday
slip by without being acknowledged. It's okay. Their birthday
wishes are often phony and without true meaning. And I'm not
jealous by any means! I had my real family by me for my special
day! That's all that mattered! But what I'm struggling
with is that I buy all the gifts that are given by my H and me.
I'm starting my Christmas shopping, and can't, for the life of me,
let myself shop for my MIL or FIL. I'm having a real hard time
doing for them when they don't do for me ... and barely do for my
H. I guess I should also mention that my MIL often forgets my
son's birthday, and after 9 years still doesn't include him as her
grandson. Although my family has welcomed my H's children with
open arms and loved them as family. We hardly use the word "step"
in my family.
My H will feel obligated to giving his parent's a gift at Christmas.
If I don't buy one, he will have to shop himself. I have a budget
that I try to stick to at Christmas. And I don't feel his parents
are worth more than that. If he shops, I fear he will overspend.
If I shop, he won't care what I buy, as long as he has a gift to give.
How do I shop for these unworthy people without feeling sick?
9/25
***NOTE: Please feel free to respond to this (using
our mother-in-law stories submission page) if you
have any advice to share. Reference this story as "Shopping
of Horrors" in your response.
RESPONSE: SHOPPING OF HORRORS
It's easy. Just buy them a garbage can or something cheap from
one of those dollar stores. Chances are they won't care.
9/26
RESPONSE:
I've been in the same situation & I try to look at it this way:
DH will spend a huge amount of money (probably in effort to assure
my role as the resident shopper). Ultimately, his overspending
hurts me worse than the crappy cheap gift I would get, so I suck it
up. My advice: Think of a clever cheap gift. One
that is not overtly a 'zinger', but if you think real hard you can
find a reason for it to be an insult. For example, my aunt is
allergic to perfume. I won't out and out buy her perfume, but
something lightly scented is just perfect. I found some rose-scented
shelving paper. It was really pretty, so it didn't look like a slam.
HA. I still love that. Make it a game. If your mil/fil
don't have college degrees (like mine), then a subtle slam is a game
that is for a younger audience or one of those vocabulary building
games. Gosh! I kill me. Good luck & make this
fun!!!!! Oooh. Popcorn in a tin. Yuck. I could
write a book about what a great gift that is for in-laws!!!!
And get a real ugly tin, too! LOL.
9/26
RESPONSE: Re: Shopping of Horror.
How about donating to their favorite charity in the amount you planned
to spend on them. At Christmas you can give them a card with
the message that you donated for them. That way you won't feel
bad about spending money on them because it's going to a worthwhile
(I assume) charity.
9/26
RESPONSE: Re: "Shopping of Horrors".
My advice, don't buy them anything but a pre-printed card where you
only have to sign your names. What can they do? If they
can ignore your birthday, then they don't deserve x-mas gifts from
you. If you can't do this, then just buy a cheap candle from
a discount store. That's what I did last year when my MIL conveniently
forgot my birthday and wedding anniversary. I bought a three-pack
of candles for about $9.99, unwrapped it, took out one candle, wrapped
it back up, and sent it to MIL. We got a sarcastic thank you
note from her saying, "Every time I light this candle, I'll think
of my son and his lovely, dear, generous wife." Yeah, right.
But she got the message loud and clear, and I didn't have to spend
anything on her except for $3.00. And trust me, she wasn't worth
even that!!!!!
9/27
|
|
Because my wife was an
ordained member of the clergy, and money was tight, I was a student.
My MIL rented us a house. Maybe I was ungrateful, but she never
knocked. She just reached for her set of keys and opened the
door! I was working third shift when she decided to have the
house re-sided and re-shingled. Her instruction to me was to
go to my parents house to sleep, thirty-seven miles away! I
was often required to work doubles 16 hour shifts, whereupon I had
8 hours to sleep get back to work to pull another 16 hour shift!
All would have been fine - I found a doc who would prescribe a med
that would allow 7 hours of sleep no matter the constant pounding.
I awakened one day to find my MIL and SIL in my bedroom!!!!
Now, this really upset me. I felt violated, but my concerns
fell on dull ears with my wife. What if my brother and father
were meandering about in the bedroom while she were asleep!
9/25
|
|
One cannibal says to the
other: "I can't stand my mother-in-law."
The other says: "Why don't you just eat the vegetables?"
9/25
|
|
Does anyone else have a
MIL who is already trying to make their Christmas plans for them already????
YIKES!!!
9/18
***NOTE: Please feel free to respond to this (using
our mother-in-law stories submission page) if you
have any advice to share. Reference this story as "XMAS?
Already?" in your response.
RESPONSE: In response to Xmas Already:
My MIL started telling my BIL and SIL that she would simply DIE if
they weren't here for both xmas eve and xmas day. Never mind
that they see their new grandchild numerous times during the week
and my SIL's parents see him only once every month or so (they live
4 hours away). This is their first grandchild. Since SIL's
parents have other grandchildren surely they can give up the first
round of holidays completely! She offered to drive to her parents
after the xmas eve dinner. That's not good enough, though.
She cried, and now she got her way. By the way, this exchange
all took place in June. Give me a break!
9/23
RESPONSE: Xmas Already?
My MIL invited both herself and her elderly sister to stay with us
for Xmas this year already - she started planning this in July.
At the time, I hadn't yet had our summer holiday. We haven't
answered her, nor have DH and I spoken about it since. We have
never spent Xmas with his family, and have never been invited to -
and I don't see why we should start because now it suits his mother
this year.
9/25
|
|
Oh my mother in law, this
is not a joke ! This is for real, as she is real. She
had recently been given a tube of facial cleanser. One morning
she picked up a small tube from the counter after wetting her face
and hands. Though the cream didn't seem too smooth, she applied
the cream to her face. It also smelled different. And,
to her surprise, it was Tooth Paste. She quickly rinsed it off,
and recalled a year before when she had cleaned her teeth with Arthritic
Cream. Yummy. But not so easy to rinse off. Oh my
mother in law, my mother in law ... 80 years young.
9/24
|
|
|
|
Working Women Don't Have Wives