"The headlines are always there in the background, but really start coming in fast and furious right before Thanksgiving. "10 Ways to Set Boundaries with Your Mother-in-Law," or "How To Tell Your Mother-in-Law To Mind Her Own Business" or "Your Mother-in-Law Survival Plan for the Holidays." They feel like a punch in the stomach every time. Already the world is deciding they need a complicated plan to survive women like me for the holidays."
"I am a mother of four sons. I am also a mother-in-law. Someone to be tolerated, survived, pushed away, talked about, othered. Or at least that's what the world has decided for all mothers-in-law. That we are the worst. And I guess we were always the worst. I guess we must be stopped before we start doing whatever it is that mothers-in-law do that drive everyone crazy."
Headlines offering strategies to 'survive' mothers-in-law proliferate before Thanksgiving, implying mothers-in-law are problematic. A mother of four sons and a mother-in-law feels othered and stereotyped as 'the worst.' Mothers-in-law are depicted as uncool, unfun, unwelcome, and excluded from feminist sisterhood. The origin of the stereotype and the exclusion of mother-in-laws from the sisterhood of feminism are questioned. The mother-in-law embraces the role, welcomes partners into a loved life, appreciates their choices, and learns new things from them.
Read at Scary Mommy
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