Re: A Healthy In-Laws Relationship tips
That’s easier said than done. What you’re saying is true, however its not sustainable in a long-term relationship where you’re living and interacting with these people on a daily basis.
Being respectful, nice, and smiling works when you’re meeting/spending time with the MIL in small doses (for example, once a month). I was doing that, and it was working fine for a few years when my husband and I were not living with the in-laws.
But most likely, she won’t be able to maintain this patience indefinitely and she will crack, perhaps in 2 months, or 6 months, or a year. Either way, if that happens, it will end up in a big blow-out.
What would work here is finding a happy medium, where there’s compromise from both sides.
This can be difficult to achieve if one side is not ready to bend at all.
My MIL is like that. When I do (or was doing) everything she expected, there was no acknowledgement, much less appreciation. However, whenever I was slightly off the line (in her opinion. In my opinion, I was being perfectly normal) she had a huge issue with it. I know for a fact that my relationship with her is going to crash and burn.
Hopefully, the MIL in question here will be more reasonable, and things will work out fine.