A minister once said, "the most strained and difficult relationship in most families is between a daughter in law, and a mother in law." His reason? "...because often the mother in law is 'in love' with too many men. She is 'in love' with her husband, and "in love" with her son--the man that she helped 'create'."

...And man he wasn't lyin'. MIL, you admired me at first because you thought I was so pretty and smart. But your admiration turned to hatred when you realized that I was also strong-willed and self-determined. I was never going to be the DIL that would kiss your tail, do whatever you say, and play the "yes ma'am" game, like your other children do. Your money couldn't buy me.

You began to hate me more when you saw your son loving me more devotedly. He started choosing my company over yours CONSTANTLY. Duh. He was a young man falling in love. He is not in love with you, his mother. How gross would that be? Yet you couldn't handle losing his attention and falling into "2nd place."

At our engagement dinner, my fiance announced our engagement. You knew your son wanted your loving support. Yet instead, you began to rant about a small loan that he still loaned you from age 19. The same debt you had claimed to forgive. You never congratulated us. You said, "You can get married if you want to. I'm buying a house."

My fiance got a new job to finance our future life. We celebrated his new success with HIS money. You claimed you didn't like him spending so much of his money on me, his fiance. You told him the diamond on my wedding ring was too big, that it looked like a "cocktail ring." You threatened that if he kept buying me things, you would start to charge him rent while he was finishing his degree and living in your home. He was only 20. But he kept treating me to things, and you did charge him that rent, plus money for that "loan" that never could seem to get paid off.

You cried and told him that God did not want him to marry me, that my religion was too different. I am Christian, you claim to be. That's the difference.

We stopped the courtship spending and starting acquiring things for our home: glassware, utensils, broom/mop, sheets, plates, books, vases,...everything. We only needed to store them a little in my home closet and in my fiance's closet. You told him to get the things out of your house. We moved it all into my parent's apt, more specifically my bedroom in my parents home. I was literally sleeping with boxes filled with plates and sheets.

Then we got the apartment (hallelujah!) and my fiance gladly moved himself, his things, and our new belongings into "our place." During that process, you called my mother and told her all the reasons why you felt we were not right for each other. You betrayed me to my own mother. You hoped she would help you, but it didn't work, did it?

You rallied the support of all the other "women" in your family and under your influence they assaulted my husband with every imaginary problem and issue that they "foresaw" us having. But that didn't work either. He left that "dinner" to come and lay in my waiting arms, whispering to me that he loved me desperately, that he needed me, that I was the women God created for him. That I was his "...cool water." I let you stress him, so that I could be his relief and source of joy...the woman who made him smile and laugh. MIL, you were too blind to see that I was using your own nature against you.

My new husband lost his job. It was too many hours while he was still trying to go to school. He didn't want to tell you because he knew that you and the FIL would condemn him, put him down. But you knew we were having financial difficulty anyway. When our car finally got repossessed,..you laughed. But my husband and I discovered that taking the bus and walking will only make you healthier. So we decided, "Who needs a blanking car anyway when you've got two good legs?" And we laughed, too. Laughed together, become closer, got stronger.

We moved to a different city shortly after being married. You called and when I said, "Hello?" You didn't say "hello" in return. You began to scream my husband's name. Each time I said, "hello" you only screamed his name again, angrily,--refusing to even greet me, his wife.

My husband wouldn't call you when we lived 300 miles away. So I would literally dial your number and hand him the phone. That's the only way you ever heard from him. He was happy and didn't think to call you. I called you out of kindless, because I knew you missed him, still needed him.

MIL, you got cancer and the FIL got cancer and kept falling down and hurting his head. My husband and I stepped away from a successful job in Chicago (and our beautiful home) and we returned here with our children (even before he had a job in this city). We came to be close to you two while you were frantic and fearful about the future. We literally went on welfare, receiving food stamps for the first time in either one of our lives because the job market in this city was impossible. But we got through that, too. And we were here for you. We took you to the hospital and were on call 24/7. You told others that he was back from Chicago because "he must have lost his job or something." You have never thanked us for our sacrifice.

Now 12 years and 4 kids (soon 5) into this marriage, you are now calling his cell phone, trying to give him the number of a woman who--for some strange reason,--is now looking for my husband. This woman told you, MIL, that she wants to rekindle a friendship that they had when they were teenagers because she remembers "how sweet and nice" my husband was and she would "love to see him again." Yeah, I'm sure she would. Her, and all the other lonely needy women in the world. But my home is not a "Needy Women's Clinic." And my husband is "not the doctor." And you, MIL, you have no better sense than to call my husband (3 times now) and offer him this phone number--while I'm sitting her PREGNANT with his child?

...I think back to how, when your own daughter and son-in-law called you and conned you out of $10K. (It wasn't the first time they had stolen thousands of dollars from you. They have never repaid you). At that time, you tearfully told me that I was a better daughter to you than any of my SILs were. I listened to you, but if it's true, why have you never been able to show me that you appreciate my love and support? Why have you always been on an actively jealouse rampage? Isn't it because--despite my sacrifices, you still despise me as the woman who took away the man you were in love with the most?

MIL, the man you have wrongly been in love with all these years...is your son.


Love This In-laws Story! (46 Loves) E-mail This In-laws Story!