Monster-In-Laws

“I HATE HER”.

“She’s annoying.”

“Rude.”

“Intrusive.”

“Controlling.”

“She tries to manipulate our marriage.”

“She scares the crap out of me.”

These are all things that I’ve heard people say about their mother-in-laws.

These aren’t rude people. In fact, many of them are my close friends. And while I can listen and say I’m sorry, I can’t exactly say that I can empathize with them.

I really like my (almost) mother-in-law (and father-in-law, and sibling’s-in-law – or is it in-laws? I dunno). I’m just gonna throw that out there. Kevin has some great family members, and somehow they seem to like me. I’m not totally sure how this happened since most of my exes’ families thought that I was the devil personified who had come to ruin and corrupt their precious boys. I’ve had mothers of guy friends tell me I was leading their children down the wrong path and that I was the cause of all their bad behavior (I was twelve and completely harmless, but we can delve into the psychological trauma from that experience another day).

Needless to say, I grew up believing that all mothers of boys were Monster-In-Laws waiting to happen, and I hadn’t had any experience to prove me wrong (With the exception of one mother of a certain loser  boyfriend, but that is neither here nor there). So you could say I was a little scared last Halloween when Kevin wanted to introduce me to his parents.

“What if they don’t like me?” I stressed over and over again as we walked up the front steps of his house – steps that we haven’t even used since then.

“They’ll like you,” he’d laugh back as he walked in.

The first thing I saw when I walked in was this:

Followed by this:

Then I was introduced to his dad, who kid you not told me, “well you look like a Phelps!” the very first moment he met me. It completely made my day.

Guess that’s one down, one to go.

We walked back to his mom’s office and said hi. And then. . .

Nothing happened.

She kept talking to the both of us as if she’d known me for years. It wasn’t awkward, there wasn’t any interrogation or sizing up of the new girlfriend. She didn’t give me the stink eye or wary glances. It was just friendly and comfortable conversation with both of his parents.

So if you have a Monster-in-law? I am sorry.

But this lady is going to be my mother-in-law, and I’m not complaining one bit.

Happy Birthday Sue.

Thank you for always taking us to neat places. Thank you for your jokes, your humor, and your smarts.

And thank you for not scaring the crap out of me.