In-laws

[Valmy]

My in-laws, before the crowd goes crazy these arent real in-laws I am not married, are church twice a week, pray before dinner, quote the bible at most opportunity, missionary work in Haiti religious.

Woah.  I didn't know they still made Quebecois like that.

[HVC]

How religious?

My in-laws, before the crowd goes crazy these arent real in-laws I am not married, are church twice a week, pray before dinner, quote the bible at most opportunity, missionary work in Haiti religious.

and you made their daughter live in sin?

[Grey Fox]

How religious?

My in-laws, before the crowd goes crazy these arent real in-laws I am not married, are church twice a week, pray before dinner, quote the bible at most opportunity, missionary work in Haiti religious.

and you made their daughter live in sin?

Compare to the their other daughter choice in boyfriends, I'm a god damn god send.

[HVC]

Ah, the "preachers daughter" syndrom. Brings back memories of Catholic highschool

[Grey Fox]

My in-laws, before the crowd goes crazy these arent real in-laws I am not married, are church twice a week, pray before dinner, quote the bible at most opportunity, missionary work in Haiti religious.

Woah.  I didn't know they still made Quebecois like that.

Before I met their daughters, neither did I. I was really shocked.

[Malthus]

How religious?

Religious enough that they host nuns with stigmata (the wounds of Christ) at their house.

A little anecdote: when we were first dating, on my first visit to their house I was left waiting in the living room while she "got ready" (a process taking hours!). On their living room table was some religious pamphlets. Being bored stiff, I read the only one that was in English - a sort of rosary book of "meditations" that the person was supposed to think about while doing prayers for 40 minutes each day. The wierd thing was, each one was a torture that was done to Jesus - sort of like the stations of the Cross, only more so, because there was a different one each day and Jesus wasn't actually tortured in 365 different ways, so they had to invent some.

Just out of curiousity, I looked up the meditation for that particular day (it was bookmarked!). It read something like "Think about the perfidous Jews, ramming human turds down Jesus' throat".

Being Jewish myself, it was a trifle ... alarming ... to think that my girlfriend's parents had just spent 40 minutes meditating on "the Jews" throat-fucking Jesus with shit. I thought they might not be well-disposed towards me ...

My in-laws, before the crowd goes crazy these arent real in-laws I am not married, are church twice a week, pray before dinner, quote the bible at most opportunity, missionary work in Haiti religious.

Altho, they tell me they have mellowed with age & newly born grandkids.

You might believe in self-sufficience like your parents but you came across as very generous & were when I visited in '09.

Hey no prob. This self-sufficency thing is about parents and kids.

[Martinus]

I think the relationship with the in-laws (by whom I mean parents of your partner, not the rest of the family) is going to be naturally strained.

Essentially, you are a guy/chick fucking their innocent baby. It's a cognitive dissonance thingie.

[merithyn]

My in-laws pray every day (probably morning and night) that Max will leave me. I am, afterall, literally the woman his mother always warned him about (divorced, met online, living in sin, non-Mennonite, etc.). They don't exactly pray that he'll leave me, but rather that he'll go back to the church, and the only way that can happen is if he left me since we're not married in their eyes and can't be so long as my ex-husband is alive. They're very nice to me when they're here, but I dislike their treatment of Max (they soft-ball shun him) and I can't let go of the idea that they wish he'd leave me. Makes for a difficult relationship. His sisters treat me far better (well, all but one of them), though his brothers have nothing to do with me unless they're standing in my house. They, like their parents, completely disapprove of Max's and my relationship.

Max gets along fine with my family, but they all drive him a little insane. They tend to be gossipy and judgmental, two things he despises. On top of that, my mom is a New Englander, which means she's got a nasally, loud voice that tends to give Max a headache. But they like him quite a bit, and respect the hell out of him.

My ex-husband's father hated me, but he hated my ex-husband, too, so I never took it personally. When he died, there were few tears shed. My ex-mother-in-law was about as passive-aggressive as you can possibly be. Every time she saw me she mentioned a therapist she knew about that I might like, gave me self-help articles, offered to help me with any problems I was having, etc. Basically, my son and you are having problems and since he's perfect, the problem must be with you. When I left my ex, she still called about once a month for the first couple of years to "check in", and lecture me about how I really should go back to her son. I stopped taking her calls eventually, but she's dead now, too, so I don't have to duck them anymore.

I've given up on having in-laws that like and respect me for being me. Fuck 'em.

[viper37]

Never had problems with in-laws.  I usually avoid having a steady girlfriend too, but that's changing.  Many of my friends do have problems with their in laws though, some severe, some trivial.

My best friend's wife was a very good friend of his sister.  When they started seriously dating, at the urge of his mother, his wife moved in with the family (at the time, his parents, him and his younger sister), against my better advice, and then... his sister stopped talking to her friend.  Not a fracking word in years.  Even when his parents finally moved out of the house, to live right behind the newlywed couple, she still didn't speak to her former friend.
Only when she had a boyfriend of her own did she start speaking again.

The relations between my friend's wife and his family are still 'frosty'.

[Ed Anger]

I bet Max's folks bake wonderful pies.

[merithyn]

I bet Max's folks bake wonderful pies.

No clue. They've never made one for me.

[Ed Anger]

I bet Max's folks bake wonderful pies.

No clue. They've never made one for me.

[viper37]

My in-laws pray every day (probably morning and night) that Max will leave me.
[...]
My ex-husband's father hated me,

I see a pattern here, Meri... 

[Jacob]

My in-laws love me and I adore them. Right now they're staying at the house and they're cooking and cleaning for us, and we don't even have any kids yet. They keep telling my wife that should let me relax and do my own thing and not to put any pressure on me about this or that and to be supportive, even though that's pretty much what she's doing anyhow.

Conversely, my parents adore my wife as well and vice versa.

I think it helps hen you can gang up with your in-laws to tease your spouse; everybody bonds a bit that way.

So yeah, no in-law drama in my life. Makes things at lot easier. I've had girlfriends who've had crazy, obnoxious or just plain disapproving parents and it does add some strain.

[merithyn]

My in-laws pray every day (probably morning and night) that Max will leave me.
[...]
My ex-husband's father hated me,

I see a pattern here, Meri... 

Max's parents like me, they just don't want me married to their son. Very different than my ex's dad, who hated everyone.