The future for our children!

[LolaTheShowgirl]

I just realised that there are always a lot of moaning threads complaining about our mothers and mother-in-laws (I am one who tirelessly moans about mine!) and just thought that just think...it could be your DD or possibly DS on here when they're all grown up moaning about you! Even worse it could be your daughter-I-L or your son-I-L moaning about their MIL bitch from hell!

Yup - what goes around comes around!

no i'll be a lovely mil.

do you still have that guinea pig in your room lola? bet it hums in this weather

I already know i am going to be a nightmare MIL - and i joke with my DS who is 15 that there is not a girl out there good enough for him - he also jokes and says there will never be a woman to match me . My dad used to say the same to me but my DH gets on really well with him.

So the future will be lots of threads about horrid son and daughter in laws .

I do think about being one sometimes (for the same reasons you stated Lola). I don't generally take rampant dislikes to people that my family love, if I can possibly help it, so I hope I'll be ok.

Lets hope that we'll all learn from our mothers/MILs mistakes!!

It's possible!! But I do think my ex MIL is particularly stupid AND bitchy. A bad combo. I have a ripple of bitchiness running through me, but it's when my hand has been forced iyswim!!

in 30 yrs when my son and his wife have problems, I think and hope I have learnt not to blame the wife. IF the son REALLY wants to visit (or whatever) HE WILL. If the son has REALLY been such a great man and such a great father, then WHY is the wife so miserable!??? You get the picture.

I think I have also learnt that I will not be DUE respect just because I will be the older generation. I would rather be friendly and helpful, and hope things are warm too.

You can, I hope, bring your son up to be brave enough to DEAL with potential conflicts, not to stick his head in the sand. He should be able to take a look around him, weigh things up, and then take some initiative himself. He should stand up for his wife when she is right. But he should be sensitive to the fact that he is a bigger part of his mother's life than she is of his.