HOW TO MENTALLY PREPARE FOR SERIOUS FAMILY TIME, NO MATTER HOW IRRITATING THE IN-LAWS MAY BE.
Let’s think for a minute…. which person are you? Are you the individual who truly enjoys hanging out with your in-laws? Or…. do you simply want to bypass the whole holiday season this year because you truly do not want to interact with your in-laws? If you are the person that dreads the get-togethers, then this is the article for you. So keep reading…. Here is a scenario that happens in so many couples “in-law issues:” Every time you all get together your mother-in-law seems to find some way to make you feel insignificant. And no matter how you dress, or what you say, or what presents you give out, there always seems to be some sort of jab, as if she has been training for a heavy weight bought for months and couldn’t wait to get her knock out. Oddly enough, you are not the only one that suffers from the “MIL,” better known as mother-in-law. Truth be told, most of the time the MIL really hasn’t realized what she has said. It’s natural for any mother to have the gloves out to a certain degree, and whether its conscious or not, the fact is most mother-in-laws go to at least round 1 with their daughter-in-law. This is called the passive-aggressive approach and often overlooked.
Jennine Estes was quoted in YourTango, stating “passive-aggressive comments are like being stabbed in the back but, on the other hand, if she is passive-aggressive, she probably isn’t open to taking a look at her actions and does it because that is the only way she knows how to communicate. Instead of allowing the comments to hurt, play a game with it. Count how frequent the comments come out, make bets on the frequency and look at it with humor,” she says. That said, don’t be a doormat. “If a family member truly gets out of line, it is up to your spouse to step in and draw a boundary,” she notes.
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