5 Helpful Tips for Treating a Troublesome Mother in Law

When a woman gets married, her circle of relatives and acquaintances grows larger. And of those new people who is the most important person? It is the mother in law naturally. However, a mother in law might be – like anyone else – someone difficult to handle. So what to do if your mother in law happens to be troublesome? Here are some tips for helping you with that:

1- Try to figure out the reason why she is being troublesome. It might be because she considers herself the most important person in her son’s life, and then considers you to be the one who denied her that. She might also be just plainly different from you in terms of personality. Once you figure out the reason, dealing with her might be much easier.

2- Do not disappoint yourself by expecting more from her than she is willing to offer. In other words, do not expect her to be or act like your mom because she is NOT your mother. Also do not cal her mom, because this seems to aggravate the mother in law sometimes.

3- If she tends to start problems whenever she sees you, then the less she sees you the better. Some women kind of create a folder in their heads for the people they hate and record in these folders whatever makes them harbor resentment towards these persons. If your mother in law is such a person, then she’ll just replay the data in your folder whenever she sees you.

4- Try to imagine the different scenarios for what might happen between you both. This way you will know what to say and how to say it, and you will not become too emotional or be much bothered by whatever she says.

5- Some mothers in law find it alright to violate the privacy of their sons and their spouses. If your mother in law is such a person, set boundaries for her. Obviously, you need to do that politely.

Remember that your mother in law is just another person, and there are strategies for dealing with any type of person there is.