Don’t Forget Your Mother-in-Law on Mother’s Day!

Mothers-in-law don’t get great press. There are millions of horror stories about them doing the rounds on the internet, and if you google “jokes” you’ll see that most jokes are about mother-in-laws. Sure, some might deserve it but most are just women who are doing their best to navigate the tricky terrain of family relationships...

Read more

Mother-in-Law Sends Awful Gifts to My Son

jack-in-the-box

Q. I live in California and my mother in-law lives in New York, so we don't see that much of each other. She just sent a gift for our seven month old baby that I think is awful. It's a hideous looking jack in the box type thing, that has a scary laugh when it jumps out.

Read more

My Daughter-in-Law Won’t Let Me See My Grandchild

Q. I've never really liked my daughter-in-law. She is a manipulative and spoiled person. A few weeks ago I was at their house to babysit my granddaughter. I took her to the mall for an icecream and got her a haircut - she's about a year and a half, and really needed a haircut with summer coming. My daughter-in-law was very upset when she saw her daughter and since then I have not been invited back to their house.

Read more

Mother-in-Law Problems: The Clash of the Grannies

prizefight

Have you ever done a Grandparent Audit of your home? Tallied up how many gifts each set has sent or counted the number of photos featuring each one of them? No, of course you haven’t. You have better things to do with your time. But plenty of grandmothers have. They know exactly how much wall and floor space they occupy. And, they now exactly how much is occupied by The Competition.

Read more

Mother-in-Law Problems: When and How to Tell Her to Back Off

You don’t. Ever. That’s her son’s, that is, your husband’s job. Unless your career experience includes professional hostage negotiator don’t go there with your mother-in-law, no matter how appalling you might think her behavior is.

Read more

Married to a Mama’s Boy: Husband Becomes Lazy Ass When His Mother is Around.

Q: When my mother-in-law comes to stay with us, my husband becomes a complete lazy ass. He lets her do his entire share of the parenting load.

Read more