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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Excessively controlling MIL is insisting on a family holiday - can I lie to get out of it??

61 replies

thechocolatemonster · 24/07/2006 10:00

My over-controlling MIL is endlessly trying to take over my family life. This weekend SIL came to stay and threw this into the conversation, "Mum has booked a villa for us all in Italy for next summer. I really hope you're going to make it"!! (SIL is often the emissary for the MIL's wishes...)

This puts so much pressure on my family life. DH & I haven't even talked about next summer. Now we're going to be pressured into going away with on a family holiday we don't want with people I'd rather not spend time with. Guilt is used a lot - i.e. if we actually said we didn't want to go - the money would be brought up as well as our selfishness etc etc. A lot of this comes through DH and very little is said explicitly to me.

Before MIL mentions this summer holiday - would it be wrong to announce that a) My Mum is taking us all away next year or b) We've won a two-week summer holiday in the US for next year (parents in law don't fly) or c) We've been invited to a wedding in Australia and will probably take a month's holiday there. These plans would fall through at the last minute (obviously).

I know this all sounds desperate and ridiculous - but it's so difficult to counteract a bullying MIL who only hints at things to me and then verbally bullies my OH.

OP posts:
SSSandy · 25/07/2006 11:36

good luck. Don't say the last holiday was bad. Just say you won't be holidaying with the whole family/other people anymore but thank her for the kind thought/offer. Try not to sound apologetic or get into any discussions. Easier said than done of course, hope it goes well

cupcakes · 25/07/2006 12:05

that's a good point, SSSandy - make it sound like it's the holidaying in groups which you don't wish to do rather than making it specifically about her.

Blu · 25/07/2006 12:33

Speaking from bitter experience, I would be honest. Not 'brutally honest', but honest and direct: " It's a lovely thought, and a lovely offere, but in all truth, we find it easier and more relaxing to have quiet family time and a holiday which we can build round the children's timetable without inconveniencing other people. You'll all have a wonderful time - send us a postcard'. And then, if you really feel the need to offere up an apologist peace offering, 'what about joining us for a a weekend break at half term?'. She won't be happy, but technically you will have shown willing.

Holiday time is way, way too prescious to be spent gnashing your teeth and biting your lip.

Anyway, she has no bloody right to railroad your life. Don't let her!

GirlySquare · 25/07/2006 13:13

I agree imho cupcakes has hit the nail on the head, though I think oh needs to talk to mil. Luckily my pils live miles away so I only have to put up with this performance once a year when they want to come down for a free holiday. My oh also takes softly softly approach with mil and has gone from mil ringing and saying when pil's are coming to stay with us, to them visiting oh's ex-w and staying with her (because we're so selfish and not family minded), to ex-w not able to anymore shock, to mil trying to get us to accommodate them instead - all because they won't fork out for b&b. My oh now just ignores any mention of them coming to stay with us and I won't get involved as mil reacts the same way yours does.

cat64 · 25/07/2006 14:20

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thechocolatemonster · 02/08/2006 21:09

Okay - so we lied!!

DH told the MIL that we'd already booked up next year's holiday. It took a lot of nagging to get him to do it - and I'm not 100% sure that it was the right way to go. But it's saved MIL's dignity & many months of heartache for DH and me....

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 02/08/2006 21:12

I totally agree with Moondog, and Blu.

akasalishsea · 13/05/2024 15:49

I think the SIL's saying "hope you can make it" says everything we need to know about the dynamics here: 'Hope you can make it" speaks to the invite being one of those "We've rented a place big enough to accommodate everyone. If you can make it. great! If not, then we will miss you but understand. It is a casual invite. You made it clear you don't want to be around "any of those people" so sounds like you have made no effort to be part of an extended family and that often happens when a person wants supreme control. To view an invite to a villa, paid for by family members, as controlling can only be viewed as such by a controlling person themselves. Those of us who are not control freaking our lives would see this invite as lovely and generous, whether or not we wanted to go. Your not liking to be around the other side of the family and seeing this as controlling speaks volumes about you unless of course they are all hatchet murders.

There is no expectations or pressure except what you are trying to make it out to be, which in turn puts pressure on your DH. I have heard exactly zero about whether DH or children want to go. Kids often enjoy being around cousins, etc. on holiday- relieves some of the boredom of just hanging out with adults or each other, especially if they bicker or are competitive. Not saying yours are but just saying such holidays can be great fun for other sin the family who too have opinions, wants, needs, desires.

Also, if you typically go through DH for everything MIL concerned because you have such negativity towards your MIL and don't want to communicate directly with her or have implied that, then don't be surprised when MIL doesn't ring you to tell you the plans she made, which she has a right to make. Perhaps your DH, if he wasn't being manipulated by you to conform to your needs for supreme control over his life so you can have your needs met, has an opinion and might want to go but is afraid to express that for fear of your wrath and dealing with the moodiness his non conformity to meeting your needs brings on ? Perhaps the children would enjoy the trip? All I hear is "I want, but I want...." "Hey, what about me?". I hear anger, great dislike and creation of drama where there should be none. Everything going through SIL? Is that because you have made it horrifically uncomfortable for DH to communicate with family through pouting, withholding affection, etc. You see, family members, including extended, will slowly learn they have to be very careful around an in law who doesn't like to be around them in order to manage being with a sibling or son they do want to see but who is becoming increasingly unavailable for a relationship due to a partner's behavior.

Your MIL has every right to rent a villa and invite whomever she wants, including you and your DH and her grandchildren. You have the right to decline if you make that choice as a family and not bully your husband or your children. Your husband has a right to go and you have a right to stay home and cheerfully see them all off if it is an experience they want to have and then enjoy some serious 'me' time since 'it is all about me time" that seems to be what you prefer anyway. I think you are reading far too much into this or you failed to give enough background to support accusations of manipulation.

Sounds like a nice gesture and severe overreaction on your part that you are trying to garner support from from other's who need to control every aspect of their partners life, a form of domestic violence.

W0tnow · 13/05/2024 15:53

Is this some sort of record for resurrection of a ZOMBIE thread?

ETA, resurrection poster should get some sort of award/recognition for labelling the OP a domestic abuser, no? I mean, it’s quite the reach!

GentlemanJohnny · 13/05/2024 16:21

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MzHz · 13/05/2024 16:39

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