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Parents-in-Law. What do/did you call them?

(103 Posts)
Marmight Mon 22-Apr-24 09:04:47

My late in-laws weirdly popped into my mind the other day while I was chopping veggies. It occurred to me that I never, in the 10 years I knew them, called them anything. Gladys & Donal didn’t feel right nor slipped off the tongue. Mum/Dad wasn’t appropriate as I already had a Mum & Dad. Mother/Father too formal & uncomfortable. I must have mumbled something when necessary - heaven knows what! They lived for each other & died 40 years ago within 6 weeks of each other. Perhaps, subconsciously, I was remembering the anniversary. Strange to think I am the only one left who does and although we were never close, I feel quite emotional about it. Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight & experience, I would treat them differently than I did as a newly married 20 something.

sazz1 Thu 25-Apr-24 20:18:47

My first MIL I called mum but FIL I didn't call anything. They were awful people really stuck up snobs and v wealthy. But that ended abruptly when the tax man came and put their huge house under the hammer and nearly bankrupted them.
My second MIL hated me and all OHs previous girlfriends so his friends told me. She never wanted OH to leave home. I called her by her first name.
Sad really as I would have loved a kind supportive MIL but didn't get one.

PamQS Sat 18-May-24 01:24:00

I called them by their first names. I think MIL might have liked me to call her ‘Mother’, but that didn’t come easily to me. If she’d asked me to, I would have tried. Since they died, I’ve come to appreciate them more, but I have to say, although I love my DIL, I don’t feel I want her to call me ‘Mother’.