To want to hear something nice about MILs?

[GinIsIn]

This isn't a TAAT, but inspired by a spate of recent threads with depressing attitudes from other posters, whose PILS aren't welcome even for an hour on Christmas Day, or to stay overnight just once for their DGC's birthday- what nice things have your PILs done?

We have DC1 on the way, and MIL kept all of DH's children's books from when he was little, plus added all the best new ones for us so that the baby will hopefully love books as much as I do.

I am sure I'm not the only one with a nice MIL, even if she is a bit bonkers sometimes!

Sadly I never got to meet my mother-in-law or father-in-law as they had sadly both passed away before I met my lovely husband. However, he has painted a vivid picture of them both as have family friends, they were clearly fab people and it will always sadden me that they never got to meet their grandson.

I get that there are some situations where PIL can be a pain the the ass. However general and unnecessary moaning for the sake of it about PIL without any real reason really annoys me.

Personally, I don't always get on with my MIL (we are very different). However she adores her grandchildren, is kind and generous, and is my DH's mum so I would never be rude to her/about her and treat her with the same consideration I would by own parents.

I love mine, she's great! We're quite different in some ways but that only makes for now varied topics of conversation. Even with tricky situations she's been lovely - for instance, she assumed I would change my name on marriage and when I (gently!) said "definitely not" she was super cool about it and a day later was all "I had a really good surname, I wouldn't have changed it these days".

We even go on hols together with my SIL and her bff and no DH.

Mine made a photo album as a wedding present with pictures of my OH from birth to meeting me. That was very sweet. She is also really good at treating her two children (my OH and his brother) completely equally. Which I think is highly admirable. If she gives us some money for something, she will ensure that she gives bill exactly the same towards something they need, despite us having very different incomes. I hope to be the same with my two. Most mothers I know seem to favour / pity Obe child (including my own!) and it fosters bitterness.

That being said, I could cheerfully strangle her most if the time.

My MIL is wonderful. She is a fantastic grandmother who has built lovely close relationships with my DC and takes them on holiday, day trips and theatre. A brilliant cook who never shows up at our house without a tupperware full of food / cake. Good company - I enjoy chatting with her.

She is a wonderful pamperer as well. I love staying at her house in her chintzy guest room, going through a stack of Women's Weeklies after she's brought me tea in bed and insisted that the children keep out of my hair.

She's not perfect - I have to overlook her competitive housewifing, fondness of Nigel Farage and Yorkshire attitude to Feelings & Emotions (aka Nonsense - You Just Have To Get On With It), which has sadly affected her relationship with DH.

Overall she's a great MIL and GM. I do LOVE the MIL threads on here though.

Mine is amazing and loves the fact that she has no 'rules' bar 'bring him back alive and fed please ' when she has ds. They have an amazing relationship and I love her for it 😍

my ex mil was awesome, she even took me and ds on holiday after me and her son split up, to be honest I struggle to think why her son turned out the way he did. His parents were great. I occasionally speak to her now, shes still just as lovely, unfortunately i know that if she gets too involved with me her son will stop her from seeing her new grandson. (yes he is that much of a bastard)

I love my MIL, she's a lovely calm person with endless patience.
We don't get to see her that often but when we do she makes us all feel at home and DS loves her to bits.
She's never intrusive, doesn't pass opinion on our parenting or DSs behaviour (he has ASD so can be...quirky). She just loves us. She's perfect.

I adore mine! She's great fun and very much young at heart. When I first had DS she was careful not to interfere but has never let me down when I've asked for help.

In fact we spend our hols with the PIL for a fortnight nearly every year and still love each other at the end of it! I couldn't do that with many people.

We got off to a very shaky start but get in great now which makes life much easier.

She looks after DS one day a week (for free, as does DM) since I went back to work and will happily have him overnight if DH and I have plans which lets us have time to ourselves every now and then.

She made DS birthday cake, not something I could ever do!

We have our own room in PIL house and it's stocked with everything DS ever needed as a baby so we didn't have to bring bottles/sterilisers etc over with us and we can just stay over instead of rushing home before DS bedtime.

There's lots more but you get the picture. And in fairness DH would say similar about my parents too.

My MIL is amazing. I tell my girls that if they get a MIL like her they'll be very lucky. She's 86, still very active and great company. She's had a tough enough life but has such a positive attitude. Everytime someone new joins the family (first children-in-law and now grandchildren-in -law) she welcomes them with open arms. She just makes the circle wider to make room for everyone. We all adore her, she has 7 children, 16 grandchildren and 5 greatgrandchildren. My BIL's wife once said that if she and her dh ever split up she was going for custody of MIL!

I love mine too! She's a great cook and has always made it clear that she really cares for me. She adores my DS and although she isn't really up for that much child care at the moment (double hip replacement) I know she's looking forward to picking him up from school when he's older. She's had a lot of loss in her life so it's a pleasure to see her enjoying my son

Mine is grand. Gets on my nerves sometimes, but is an absolute star. Without her helping when DS2 was little I'd never have managed going back to work. She takes the DCs all over the place on adventures, loves them endlessly and is the most reliable babysitter on earth. I love her, and we have a relationship that's completely separate from her relationship with DH; we're friends too. It's lovely.

My mil is lovely. She's a lovely granny and a lovely friend. There :)

Mine treats my DCs from a previous relationship exactly as she does the DCs from my relationship with her son. Same level of concern and interest, same generous cheques for birthdays and Christmas. When her son first went home and said "I've met a woman who's recently divorced with 2 kids" she didn't bat an eyelid - just embraced us all. She is mad as a balloon, but I do love her.

Mine is properly ace, and I love her. She calls me her daughter-that-she-never-had, and is delighted to have DD as a granddaughter. She doesn't judge or criticise our parenting, and offers advice only if we ask (which we do, because she doesn't judge!)
She adores DD, and always has a new book or toy for her when she sees her, and they are always thoughtfully chosen. She always treats us to delicious treats (we are skint) when we visit or she visits us. She's far too generous with presents for us all, and will babysit at the drop of a hat. She's always interested in our news, and has never ever guilt tripped any of us. She thinks DD is wonderful, and I know they will have a close relationship for years, as MIL is early sixties, so hopefully for many years to come.

Way to completely miss the point of the thread lostowl!!

lostowl wow, who pissed on your chips this morning?!

Mine is lovely, although I didn't realise that until I had DC. She used to drive me mad but now I love her dearly and am deeply ashamed at how I used to behave before the kids came along. I really hope she didn't notice!!

My MIL was one of the very best. She died nearly 2 years ago and we all miss her a great deal.

She was wonderful with the dc. Always making sure that all gc were treated as well as each other. She loved baking with them and would spend hours making all sorts of pies and cakes. She never minded about the mess they made.

We were always welcome in her home. One Easter we were all there but I came down with flu. Proper shivering and shaking in the night, can't get out of bed flu. Not only did she look after me superbly while we were there but when it was time go, she insisted I stay. My DH went home with our then two very young dc. And my MIL looked after me for a few more days. She was by far the best.

But the reason why she was the best was quite simple. She had a shocker of a MIL herself. One who treated her like dirt. So my MIL, the mum of 2 boys, vowed that she would treat her DILs as the daughters she never had. And she did, in bucket loads.

My MIL is also lovely, I really enjoy spending time with her. She's a fantastic granny to all of her grandchildren. My in laws altogether are wonderful and I just adore my SIL - she is hands down the loveliest person I've ever met.

Mil is very different to my own mum, not particularly maternal and a bit prim and proper and stuck in her ways. But I do really like her and she can be very thoughtful and she's hilarious when she's had a glass of wine and lets her hair down a bit. She thinks I've been good for dh and is very complimentary to me. Pil live 4 hours away so we don't see them very often and she likes her own space when they visit so they stay in a hotel - much to our protestations! Our second baby is due in 5 weeks and they're talking about coming down on the train just for the day when it's born so as not to 'intrude'. Of course we've said they're welcome to stay for as long as they like and don't have to rush off. So she's also very respectful of our space - which sometimes annoys us though as we'd like to see them more! They're both lovely actually, but very different to my own parents which took some getting used to at first. Things like she doesn't like her house cluttered with Christmas decorations and doesn't go in for it much (her house is like a show house). My family are the total opposite - noisy, excitable, a bit messy sometimes etc. On the whole I couldn't wish for a better mil though.

Sadly I never had the pleasure of meeting my MIL because she passed away when dh was young. I so wish she could have met her grandchildren.

My FIL is fab. He does things that annoy me sometimes and I find him a bit baffling at times but no more so than my own parents! My SIL is also lovely.

My MIL is amazing, she loves DS to pieces, spent my pregnancy knitting beautiful blankets and hats, sat with me while prem DS was in SCBU so DH could go and get some work done so he could save some paternity leave for when DS came home, and she dropped everything at a minutes notice to look after DS when he was 3 months old as I was ill and admitted to hospital for emergency surgery so DH could be with me (my DM was recovering from surgery herself so without MIL we'd have been totally stuck). She now provides free childcare for DS while I'm at work and even drops him off at our house after work to save us the journey! Yes we have slightly different child rearing views at times but I have to trust that DH turned out pretty well so different isn't always bad! I'm very lucky