Gransnet forums

Relationships

Help with a MIL problem

(31 Posts)
loopylou Thu 07-Jan-16 17:43:00

Personally I wouldn't go to see her, let your husband go alone.
My MIL was utterly hateful, loathed me from the start because 'she loved X, his ex-fiancée' and clearly I was never going to be good enough.

There really is no point in trying to find out; she's made her views clear, she doesn't want to know for whatever reason so don't hand her extra ammo by visiting.

It is very sad but it does happen, it's nothing you've done or not done, just her decision.

jinglbellsfrocks Thu 07-Jan-16 17:36:31

I would think she's jealous because you've taken her son away. Nothing you can do about. It's just a fact some people are just not very nice. Don't bother any more. Leave the door open, but leave it to her.

suzied Thu 07-Jan-16 17:28:14

It's really hard to know what's behind this inconsistent behaviour. Is your OH an only child? How does she behave towards others in the family? Perhaps she's jealous of your relationship with her son.? You are being very magnanimous here. I have a terrible relationship with my MiL, who has always made it clear I am not good enough for her wonderful boy, so I only really see her when there is a large gathering and I can avoid her. So I'm not really one to advise, but it might be worth trying to see the situation from her perspective( or trying to). If nothing comes of your olive branch you may well just have to try to lower your expectations of having a loving relationship with her.

RedheadedMommy Thu 07-Jan-16 17:26:16

I'd back of and leave her to it.
You can't make someone be an active role in your child's life, as crap as that sounds.
Just let her know that she is always welcome and make it clear you want her to be involved in her grandchilds life.

I was told, you cant control how people act but you can control how you react.

tanith Thu 07-Jan-16 17:23:05

Just wondering if there is a father in law? and could your husband speak to him privately to see what the problem is from his perspective.

HappyMumma83 Thu 07-Jan-16 17:14:06

Hi, I am very new to this so please bear with me.

I have a very difficult relationship with my MIL and would love to make it better.

To give a brief history when I met my Husband we got on really well, used to meet up for coffee and go shopping together etc, then when we got engaged she completely changed towards me, making frequent nasty comments, ignoring me, generally being very rude, I tried to include her in the wedding planning inviting her to appointments and asking her opinion on things, but she was always so rude and once she had been rude to my Mum and upset her on a few occasions, I decided not to include her in asking her along as it should have been such a wonderful time planning my wedding it ended up being a dreadful time. My Husband and I ended up getting pregnant just before the Wedding which was planned and she seems to cheer up a bit once we told her. A few months into the pregnancy she changed back to her old ways and we couldn't win no matter what we did for her or what we said, once I had given birth the relationship was at it's worst and she barley came to see her Grandchild, then I decided to meet up with her to see what was wrong and what we could do to fix it so she said she wanted to be more involved we did this and it lasted for about 6 weeks and then my Daughter nearly died of a chest infection as she couldn't fight it off properly, then she went back to her old ways with ignoring us, we asked her to support us a couple of times to be ignored or making it difficult to come and see us.

Finally my Husband feels that we should go and speak to her about it so we are going over on Saturday to speak to her, my question is how to address this, I don't want to go storming in there saying why where you there for us etc I just want my Daughter to have her Grandparents in her life so they can share the joy with us,

Sorry for the long post but I would really appreciate some advice?