Mother-in-law vent

[JenBKR]

So glad I'm not the only one.....I have always found her to be abrasive but she got so much worse when I had a baby. It can be tough to deal with. We were at her house last weekend for a few hours and when we left we put Ty in his snowsuit and got ready to leave. She starting flipping out because we didn't put a blanket on him too (it wasn't THAT cold out...). I just said, "He'll be fine" and we left. Then I just found out from my SIL that she was complaining to others that we don't cover Ty well enough and he had to have been freezing

we should make a MIL antifan club.... what a great place to vent on them

What a great idea! And we can vent everytime they get on our nerves (ooh I may not have time to do anything else then.... )

[sparks19]

Oh man that must be so frustrating Jen.

I am lucky mine lives in Florida so I am not under a microscope all the time.

Although she frustrates hubby and I both when she tells us that we just don't understand how it feels to love Hannah so much... UM pretty sure we do lol we are her parents after all... we MADE her lol.

[Catty1]

A tip I read on Dear Ann or Abby, one of them, many years ago - she was advising a woman who had the same problem.

Or actually - I think another woman wrote in to the column with her advice.

Anyway - whenever she got berated or hassled by the MIL, she would say, "You're absolutely right. I don't know HOW you tolerate it."

Tended to stop the barrage right in its tracks.

Might work with ANY annoying person, actually!

[Karen]

Just had to say, I love my mom-in-law, they are not all awful!

I would speak to your husband about it, and let him know it does hurt you, and ask if he'd be willing to talk to his mother about toning it down.

[sparks19]

Just had to say, I love my mom-in-law, they are not all awful!

I would speak to your husband about it, and let him know it does hurt you, and ask if he'd be willing to talk to his mother about toning it down.

no they aren't all awful. I love my MIL too she is a very wonderful person and has done a lot for us. She just doesn't think sometimes before she says things lol and I don't think she realizes that sometimes its hurtful. she does the same thing to her own daughter with her first child. It's just how she is

[kuhio98]

She sounds like she feels left out and lonely. She may have the best intentions. She's probably just trying to be included. Unfortunately, the way she's doing it makes her sound like a disapproving, critical know-it-all.

You might try asking her questions about when your husband was Ty's age. She may just be dying to share with you her "pearls of wisdom" on childcare. Even if you think it's all garbage and intend to disregard all her ideas, my advice would be to try to listen without feeling criticized.

After all, she didn't do too bad of a job, did she? She learned what to do -- or what not to do -- by raising your husband and he turned out great, right?

Seriously, she may be a total beotch, I don't know. But, she may only know how give advice in the form of criticism. She might chill a little if she felt like her opinion mattered to you. Even if it doesn't, you could pretend like it does once in a while.

I had the most perfect mother-in-law in the world. She lived 3000 miles away and thought it was too expensive to call Alaska!