In-Laws anyone???

[fluffhead]

no....I don't think anybody here has any experience in this particular area.


My MIL is a perfect {rhymes with} :witch: (oops I meant to say darling)

Anyway, if you solve this problem, let me know. I'm of the opinion that a single tongue lashing from you will show her that you're not gonna lie down and take this stuff for the rest of your life. Others might advise to keep the peace. I tend to give an occasional swat on the nose to keep them in line.
(though at this point we're not really speaking - a mixed blessing to be sure)

[DCJenn]

Welcome to the Crazy MIL's club. Apparently, in order to become a doctor, your mother must be a whack job.

We actually have an imaginary MIL smackdown. I'm pretty sure that between Kris, fluff, JLynnB, LDRO, Jesher, me, and my apologies to everyone else... we might have some suggestions.

I did the ignoring thing with my MIL and only ever dealt with my crazy SIL when SHE got out of control. Over time my MIL has come to accept that I'm not going anywhere so she may as well be nice. and the rest of the family has imploded so I'm actually the only sane one she has left to talk to!

Good luck. and if you want to enter your future MIL in the smackdown, feel free.

[Flynn]

I'm with Fluff.

I gave an oscar winning "tounge lashing" once upon a time to my MIL and now only have to revert to a "swat on the nose from time to time."

Don't resort to her level. Instead, tell her your boundaries and make sure she knows there are consequences if she decides to ignore them.

[Michele]

I am lucky in that my hubby gave the initial tongue lashing and now I do the occasional swat. At least he always sticks up for me and almost always takes my side. :>

I am lucky in that my hubby gave the initial tongue lashing and now I do the occasional swat. At least he always sticks up for me and almost always takes my side. :>

That sums it up for us. Took a while to get there, but we did and it works for us.

In terms of when to say something and when to keep the peace, pick your battles. Some things aren't worth getting upset about. And some are.

[Tenacious_D]

This is my favorite subject!!! :> I think there is a requirement that if your offspring is planning on being a doctor then you must make the spouse's life miserable.

I am to the point where I ignore and simply avoid her. I had to go to Boston on business this past weekend and I didn't tell them I was coming. I just didn't want to bother. DH supported that decision and kept the travel plans quiet. As long as you've got your spouse on your side the battle should be a little easier. Good luck!

[SuzySunshine]

My MIL is not nearly as bad as some others I've heard of and even some on this board but last night I wanted to throttle her. We are going home in a month for a wedding of a high school friend of DH's. My parents and my ILs live two hours apart and while my parents have been to the ILs, my ILs have never been to my parents. So a few weekends ago my DH mentioned to his parents that since this is a Friday night wedding we'd take them to my parents for the day on Saturday. She actually sounded excited, I should have known it was too good to be true. DH talked to her last night and she was like "oh, we can't go that day, we thought it was a differnet day". What part of the weekend after Easter can you confuse? I think last night was the straw that finally broke my DH's back. For years I've been telling him that she twists things so that they're done her way or not at all and now he finally gets it because he was just as upset as I was. It may not seem like a big deal but my parents are two hours farther away from us and we have visited his parents and not mine many times, plus my parents welcome our dog and his don't so we have to kennel her and its just a big mess.

All in all I'm glad things aren't worse but at the same time I can see them getting worse when we have children.

[Vishenka69]

Reading all your stories makes my MIL look almost saintly (please don't hate me). She definitely has her moments but over the years she has learned that I will do things my way regardless of what she says. Although our views on childrearing are pretty different, so we'll see what happens when we have kids.