If there's a group of people who consistently manage to push our buttons, it's family. However, one woman recently made a post on Reddit where she swore that it would be difficult to find a worse relative than her husband's adoptive mother, even if you tried. She briefly described all the ways the lady attempted to break them up and mentioned they had moved across the country just to escape her. The woman worked hard to leave everything in the past, but when an unexpected opportunity arose to prevent the lady from getting a promotion, she went all in.
The mother- and daughter-in-law relationship doesn't have to be complicated
Image credits: Margaret Jaszowska (not the actual photo)
But when it is, oftentimes the whole family feels it
Image credits: Daniele La Rosa Messina (not the actual photo)
The woman addressed some of the biggest questions people had for her
Image credits: Lahiru Welahetti (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Vitaly Gariev (not the actual photo)
Image source: anon
Why so many people clash with their mothers-in-law
Image credits: macniak (not the actual photo)
According to a study from 2021, the "monster-in-law" may be a product of evolutionary wiring.
Researchers found that 44% of people reported more conflict with their mothers-in-law than with their own mothers, primarily over financial resources and child care.
"This genetic conflict may cause affines (in-laws) to disagree about the distribution of resources and investment, just as we see mothers and fathers disagreeing in these domains," the study authors wrote.
They also noted that these conflicts are likely heightened because in-laws "do not choose to have relationships with one another" but are thrown together as "unintended consequences" of their children's romantic entanglements.
Another study found that when daughters-in-law have problems with their mothers-in-law, they believe that:
- Their mother-in-law is closer to another child-in-law than to them.
- Their mother-in-law is interfering in their marital relationship.
- They cannot speak directly to their mother-in-law about important matters (implying that their spouse does the communicating).
- Their mother-in-law is withholding.
- Their mother-in-law makes them feel anxious.
- They and their mother-in-law have different parenting philosophies.
"One key takeaway from our research is that the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law's relationship should be viewed in the context of other relationships in the family. These include other in-laws who have married into the family ... as well as the mother-in-law's son or daughter, the spouse of the daughter-in-law," one of its authors wrote.
"With the daughter-in-law and her spouse communicating to the mother-in-law directly, as well as with the daughter-in-law feeling comfortable speaking directly, a boundary may be drawn around the couple's relationship which may help clarify some of the ambiguity."
This time, however, the problems were far more serious.
People have had a lot to say about the whole ordeal
