Mother-In-Law Stories
Archives 10/30/99

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My future mother-in-law is so very overbearing and manipulating and controlling, and my future husband is so very clueless, I am embarrassed. She has a lot a lot of money and loves to throw it around and show it off.  She wanted me to have my wedding gifts sent to her house, and she was going to put them out on display and have a "sip and see" where people came over and had a drink and checked out all the presents!  Has anyone ever heard of this?  I think it is so very tacky.  AND even though we put their names on the invitation (because they are paying for half the wedding) she wanted HER address printed on the back of the envelopes.  Have you ever????  AND, a bunch of her friends are throwing us an engagement party, and she didn't even ask me, but one night we went over there and she had all these gifts lined up, and SHE had already bought the hostess gifts that are supposed to come from me and SHE wrote the poem to go into the gift!!!  Have you ever heard such shameless controlling behavior????  I am going NUTS!!!  If anyone has advice, please send! 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 the "wedding from hell" in your response.

 

	About 15 years ago I became allergic to cheese.  I went into anaphylactic shock and had to be hospitalized.  My Dr. told me I must never eat cheese again because it could kill me.  I told my evil mother-in-law and her family.  They didn't believe me and thought I wanted sympathy.  I found myself being grilled on specifics and eyed with suspicion.  That year we were invited to thanksgiving dinner.  I was told not to bring a thing.  When I got there I found out why.  Instead of turkey they prepared pizza and spaghetti with cheese on top.  The potatoes and broccoli were covered with cheese, there was fondue and cream cheese dip with cheese Dorito's.  And just in case I had some room for dessert, there was homemade apple pie with cheese on top.  I got the picture-- they wanted me dead!
	My husband is one of nine children, and has a mother who feels she is owed everything for raising them.  When we had our second child, my husband talked me into naming her after his mother, which we did.  No matter how many times we tell my MIL, she calls her all these strange nick names, because, after all, she is "her" namesake!!  Now, with our third child, I named him after my deceased father, and my mother in law said, "Have you thought this through?  This name is a queer name and his identity may be compromised. Why don't you give him a normal name like John or Matthew?"  Now, she said the other day, "Too bad they have that awful blonde hair.  At least they have my beautiful eyes!!"  Ahhhh, she makes me so mad, and their eyes are green, not brown like hers.  She needs to go to the eye doctor!  My husband says to ignore her, she's old.  I'd like to ignore her forever.
	Even before we were married, my husband and I agreed that we did not want to have children.  Because of this, my MIL does not treat us with the same respect as my married brothers and sisters-in-law.  His family recently had a week-long reunion at my MIL's.  When my husband and I arrived, we were told there were no extra bedrooms, and we would have to sleep in the basement with the grandkids.  We noticed that no one else had arrived yet.  My husband has a bum back (incidentally, no one else in the family does) and we decided to get a hotel room instead.  When we arrived at the time requested each morning, breakfast had already been served.  We'd hear wonderful stories about the great time they had staying up late together and playing games after we'd left!
	My mother in law is Mary Poppins and Frankenstein all rolled into one!  My husband and I have been married 10 years, and we'll go a couple of years on great terms, and then off a year, etc.  Well, the most recent episode with her was:  her daughter gave me (the daughter in law) a perm in her (the MIL) old beauty shop located next to their home.  That day, a couple of the family members had gotten haircuts and I was last and got a perm.  After all that, I swept and cleaned her shop up.  That following Monday, I get a call from her.  The first thing I hear is, "The next time ya'll use that shop it better be cleaned up!"  Well excuse the #@!? out of me, but I did clean it!  It looked better when we walked out than when we went in!  As I told her that she said, "Well, I'm talking about the perm rods you left in the sink."  She kept on and on like MIL do telling me how she had so much to do today, and I'm guessing that taking those out of the sink would take a ? whole whopping 10 sec's?  Anyway, after about 5 minutes of this I just told her that her chewing my ass out on the phone wasn't going to help her get things done any quicker!!!  Haven't spoken since! Oh well!!!
	When we moved into our new house, my MIL was not ready to give us any compliments, no matter what.  It is a larger place than they have ever lived in, and we proudly took them on the tour.  She trashed almost every room of the house in one way or another.  The funniest was when she pointed to the bedroom wallpaper and made a comment about how nice the room would look once the wallpaper was replaced.  We did not realize just how comical this was until we were looking through a family album as we were unpacking it and noticed that our "ugly" wallpaper was the very same wallpaper she had in her bedroom for about 20 years, just a different color!
	We were packing up our car to go to my in-law's house for the weekend, when we noticed that our infant son had a high fever.  We called my in-laws to tell them that we could not come because our child was sick.  My MIL said, "I guess this is for the best, because I have a fever too."

*** Rarely do we receive a mother-in-law tribute (maybe it was the proximity to Mother-In-Law's Day?).  But, we are pleased to print a story from one of the "lucky" ones. ***

My Husband and I have been together for seven years. I honestly don't know what I'd have done without my mother-in-law.  She is like my best friend (and she isn't holding a gun to my head).  She has been there for me through it all.  She has done things for me that my own mother would never do.  I am much closer and I have a lot more love and respect for her than I do my own mom.  She raised 2 sons by herself, and I was lucky enough to marry one of them, and gain her for my "MOM".  She is truly a great lady and I love her very much.

*** Not a story, but a reader's request (and, go figure, another tribute!).  If you can help, please respond to this request using our mother-in-law stories submission page.  Reference "mother-in-law poem" in your response. ***

I am desperately trying to put together a Book of poems as a special gift for my Mother in Law <MIL> for Christmas....< not to make a profit>....this is my 2nd marriage, and my former MIL was the all time MIL from hell...and now my New Hubby's Mother is the sweetest most kind woman, and I just want to do something special for her, being she has had a very rough year.  I have been doing a lot of searches for the right poems...if you could help me in any way shape or form...Thank you.