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Relationships

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

MIL wants us to sleep in separate beds in her house

358 replies

aurynne · 20/09/2009 11:17

Hi there, here goes another MIL thread ;)

My partner's mom is actually a lovely person and she and I get along very well. But there always had to be a "but", doesn't it? When we go to stay with them in their house, my partner and I have to sleep in separate beds! My partner and I are in out thirties and have been together just for 7 months, but for goodness sake, we sleep together every day!

I know that in your house, you set your own rules, however absurd they are. So, last weekend we stayed there I suggested my partner that we could sleep in a hotel instead, and go see his parents in the morning. He replied that "his parents would be very hurt if we did that" (!!!).

So, apparently the rule is not only that when we sleep at their house we do it in separate beds, but actually that we MUST sleep in their house! Is this common behaviour in MILs?

It doesn't bother me that much when it is only a weekend, but we are planning to spend Christmas there and I definitely don't want to sleep in separate beds from my partner for two weeks. And I am not 16, ffs!!!

Any of you has this same problem? Has anybody fund a magic solution that will not offend anyone? Is my MIL's behaviour reasonable?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Aurynne

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 13:53

'This is meant to be a special time and a precious 2 weeks together '

PMSL!

And to think, school hols aren't for another 3 weeks up here!

Haahaahaa.

Hugs
expatinDMland

OrangeFish · 22/09/2009 13:54

I still don't get the nastiness in this thread...

hullygully · 22/09/2009 13:55

Why doesn't she offer to sleep with her MIL and share the love?

2rebecca · 22/09/2009 13:56

I think the OP's email sounds sensible, and I agree there does seem to be some transference with posters feeling a separated wife is still a DIL, presumably they were first wives who felt ousted or something. I certainly stopped thinking of my exhusband's parents as my inlaws once we separated and had new partners, and he stopped thinking of my parents as his inlaws. To a certain extent being an inlaw is a practical relationship as much as a legal one. Once you separate the relationship changes hugely even if you don't divorce until years later.
The OP has not suggested her partner's parents change their house rules, just that they stay for a shorter period of time. I do agree though that this would probably have been better received coming from the son though and I would be pissed off with my husband of several years if he sent an email to my dad suggesting how long we'd stay with him. That's my job, likewise I leave him to negotiate with his parents. This isn't because I'm scared of them or not "open". They are his parents and he has a closer relationship with them. I think women too often want to control all arrangements and then end up moaning their husbands never arrange anything or send cards etc after years of taking over their relationships.
I do think emailing rather than leaving it to the partner was a bit emasculating and controlling, although the content of the email sounds OK.

hullygully · 22/09/2009 13:59

Expat - one of my fave things about MN has always been that noone CARES if it's made up - they carry on rowing anyway!

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:00

Good idea, hully! Share the openess, communication and honesty over the holiday period.

It will make for a precious and special fortnight .

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:01

Exactly, hully! Extended, is that you?

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:01

Exactly, hully! Extended, is that you?

hullygully · 22/09/2009 14:03

What does that mean? (Both times.)

StayFrosty · 22/09/2009 14:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:05

Oh, 'Extended' was someone who liked to have fun on these boards not too long ago.

hullygully · 22/09/2009 14:06

No, then.

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:06

Thanks for the helpful posts, StayFrosty!

Cuddles
expatinDMland

2rebecca · 22/09/2009 14:07

I think after 7 months and living together you can be partners. I was descibing my current husband as my partner at that stage even though I was still married to someone else. I think it's up to the people in a relationship to decide whether they are partners or not. It's often a bit of a meaningless word anyway and usually just means "serious sexual relationship with someone I am not married to".
Partnership is as much a state of mind as anything else. Some people on here describe a bloke they have been living with for years as their partner when it's obvious there is no genuine partnership or working together at all in the relationship.
The duration of a relationship often has little correlation to how much genuine partnership is in the relationship.

hullygully · 22/09/2009 14:08

Unless they sleep with their MILs

QuintessentialShadow · 22/09/2009 14:16

Aurynne

I shall step out of my "this must be a wind up" stance for just once second, and offer a piece of personal experience for you, just in case you are willing to listen and not just shrug it off with smiles and hugs.
Maybe it will open up your mind to other peoples emotions, just for long enough to gain some understanding of your partners mums situation.

After only 7 months together, you are very lucky to have an invite to stay for Christmas at all. Especially as your boyfriend is still married to someone else.

MY MIL find it very hard to accept her other sons new girlfriend into her life and her house. Like you, his new girlfriend has been with him under a year. He is still married, and for complicated reasons cant finalize any divorce for some time. He is very much in love with his new girl friend, Rachel, and he thinks she is very good for him. He met her before his marriage ended, but did not form a relationship with her until after he moved out of their marital home. He has been married 5 years. His wife, Miranda, has not cheated, but they have other issues, which has hurt my Bil very much.

Although My MIL appreciates that Rachel is good for him, and she is probably very nice, and that he loves her very much, and that Miranda has treated him badly, this is all too new for her to accept. She may keep a brave face, and be smiling and polite, but this not be portraying her real emotions.

She is mourning the loss of her youngest sons marriage. She is sad for all the hopes and dreams they all had when these two young people got married. She has years of knowing Miranda, years of loving Miranda even though she hurt her son. Now she has to accept that there will be no grand children, she will no longer be in family with Mirandas mum and dad whom she had become very friendly with. Her extended family is broken up, and a new girl has entered the scene.

When I stayed at her house this summer, she was crying about it to me. Yet, was happy and cheerful in the face of this new girl who was just introduced to her for the first time. The new girl and her son are moving in together and she has no choice but to accept it.

I can just IMAGINE the turmoil she would feel if New Girl emailed her and tried to organize a different Christmas than the one she had planned.

Please show some respect to your boyfriends mum, and please bear in mind that she might have other emotions to contend with than those she shows to you.

Also remember, that your boyfriends mum is also female like yourself, and with more years under her belt than you, she will see through "honesty", "charm" and "sweetness" and label it correctly with "female catty attitude and bitchiness". (Like many other posters here )

mrsboogie · 22/09/2009 14:18

"Even if not married, you can't describe a boyfriend as a partner"

ehm. what???

you can't? why not? what's to stop you?

I never heard such nonsense!!

there's a lot of crazy talk on this thread!

who cares what the MiL (oooops said it again)bloody woman's point of view is? The Op has told us that for whatever reason she doesn't want her son and his gf staying together at her house. The reason is irrelevant - it is plainly daft in a modern society to set such rules for respectful adult offspring. The rules being daft, the OP doesn't have to worry about the POV behind them.

And why wouldn't their first Christmas together be a special time? why snigger at that??

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:21

'And why wouldn't their first Christmas together be a special time? why snigger at that?? '

Because it's funny, that's why!

Not so funny is your complete lack of respect for your partner's parents.

But wotevas.

OrmIrian · 22/09/2009 14:23

Did you read QS's post mrsb?

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:24

I find speed limits and council tax daft, too, in a modern society, so fuck it, who cares what the POV is behind them, stuff 'em!

OrmIrian · 22/09/2009 14:27

Ditto the routines that some parents use to look after their baby. Never used them, don't understand them. Presumably that means I can ignore and disrupt them in any house I visit?

mrsboogie · 22/09/2009 14:29

eh? why is it funny?

It's mid winter, you get a long holiday from work, you can buy each other nice presents, go for long walks, snuggle up on the sofa on dark evenings and watch crap on the telly while eating chocolate. What's funnny about that?

and you couldn't possibly know what respect I have for my partner's parents.I am not the OP and have said nothing about my relationship with them.

However you can still be respectful to someone if you disagree with their views and make your holiday arramgements accordingly, I would have thought.

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:32

'It's mid winter, you get a long holiday from work, you can buy each other nice presents, go for long walks, snuggle up on the sofa on dark evenings and watch crap on the telly while eating chocolate. What's funnny about that?'

Well, no, actually, in NZ, it would be summer.

I can't, however, vouch for the quality of telly there during the holidays.

And who knows, maybe the OP's idea of a holiday involves getting drunk and tipping cattle of a long, dark evening.

Also, Xmas falls just after the winter solstice begins, so it's not exactly mid-winter.

hullygully · 22/09/2009 14:33

I want to tip cattle. Can one book?

expatinscotland · 22/09/2009 14:36

I don't think most farmers taking bookings for that, hully, but you could always ask and if they express a negative opinion of it, just disregard them. I mean, not going cattle tipping whilst drunk is daft.