Fortunately, and sometimes unfortunately, you can’t choose your family. So, we have to be prepared for life full of nice and not so nice surprises. My mom wants grandchildren and is bugging me terribly about it, and I don’t even have a boyfriend. So, I went on my third date with a guy. We come out of the cafe, and I see my mom! We said hello, my mom looked at Jake and said, “Well, when should I expect grandchildren?” He even got pale, but quickly came round and said, “We haven’t decided yet!”My grandmother and I went to visit my aunt. I was about 12 years old. I had very long hair at the time. But, except for a simple ponytail, I didn’t know how else to style it. Usually my mum, grandma or friends would braid it. My aunt was furious that my grandmother braided my hair every morning. One morning, she took my ponytail and just cut it off while my grandmother wasn’t home.

When we returned home, my mum was shocked, and I cried all the time because the short haircut didn’t suit me. So now I have to live with a bob, and I wanted to be like Rapunzel.My sister invites our mother to go to Turkey for a holiday. The mother always says, “You don’t understand, I’m 70 years old, it’s hard for me, I can’t do it!” But the funny thing is that our parents work in the garden every single day to grow organic potatoes that no one needs. And all this is under the pretext, “Well, we have to exercise, it’s our hobby!”A man I know told me that his student son said he wanted to live separately. He said he’s an adult now and doesn’t want to live with parents. Okay. They live in a big city and have an empty apartment in the suburbs (the tenants have moved out). They say, “Live there, find a job. We have nothing against it.” But the son says that he expects his parents to rent him an apartment in the city and pay for his expenses. The father refused, so now he is enemy number one.My dad once made a rocking horse for my niece. He carved it out of several pieces of wood, hand braided the tail and mane out of rope that he painstakingly unwound, and hand painted it. It was a beautiful toy that would have lasted for generations. One day, her father was too lazy to go out and chop wood, so he smashed it up and threw it into the fire.My husband and I found out the other day that we’re expecting a daughter, and we decided to name her Ariadne — we both love this name. Recently, my husband told about it to his parents. My mother-in-law almost choked with shock when she heard the name we chose! She immediately said that the granddaughter must be named Maria after her grandmother. And that, in her opinion, was out of the question. I tried to explain my position and even give arguments in defense of our choice, but no one even wanted to listen to me. All my husband’s relatives sided with my mother-in-law. My parents supported me, so my mother-in-law snapped at them. She shouted that we have our family line, and therefore we should call our children by the names of grandparents. It all turned into a big fight and I felt so bad that I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. In the morning, my husband called me and we chatted. And then my husband said, “If Mom wants it so bad, let’s name our daughter Maria, because it’s just a name for a child. And we will name the second child as we want.” I snapped and told him that I will register the child with the name I want, because for his family, it is just a name. My husband went silent and said, “Well, whatever you want,” and hung up the phone. I want our child to have the name that my husband and I have chosen. But I don’t want to spoil the relationship with my in-laws.My husband and I have our phones on silent until at least 10 a.m. on weekends. So, we’re sleeping. Suddenly, I wake up to the sound of my husband pulling on shorts and a T-shirt. Immediately, the intercom rings. I ask him, “Who is it?” He replies, “Police.” It turns out that my mom sent me a screenshot of the water meter in messenger at 7 or 8 a.m. And 2 ticks didn’t appear. She started calling me at 8 a.m., but my phone died overnight. She called my husband, and his phone was on silent. He read her message that he had to open the door to the police because they were helping to search her missing child only at 10 a.m. To say I was angry is an understatement. We are 37 years old.I stopped inviting my son’s friend over because his mother had so many rules. He could not eat hot dogs or grapes — choking hazard. No hamburgers at restaurants or at our house because they might not be cooked through. No playing outside without an adult present to watch. This was through sixth grade, even. I could go on, she’d email us during the school pancake feed fundraiser, to tell us that she was watching and thought they probably kept the batter cold enough to prevent salmonella, so it’s okay that our son ate the pancakes. That kind of thing. The great thing is, her kid was really pretty normal. In contrast, I invited another friend over for him, and they were outside monkeying around and got a kite caught in the tree. His mom came to get him, saw it up there, scoffed at their efforts to fish it out with a rake, and ordered her son to climb up and get it. He hesitated, and she was like, “Get up there!” So he scrabbled up there like a monkey while I thought, “Yes, this is a normal childhood.”Our family have a huge problem, and we don’t know what to do. My husband’s father did a DNA test for an unknown reason, and it turned out that he is not my husband’s biological father. My husband is now 32, I am 29 years old. My mother-in-law did not deny it, but replied something like, “Who cares what happened 30 years ago! Do I have to remember everything? After all, the main thing is that I loved you all these 30 years. Don’t you care about that?” She is a good woman, she and her husband have always lived in love and harmony. But now my father-in-law wants a divorce. My husband is angry with his father and resentful of his mother. They all text him and complain about each other. What should we do? I’m in shock.Ever since I gave birth 4 months ago (so I have 4 kids total), my mother-in-law has been showing up whenever she wants and when she’s here, she always helps herself to whatever she wants. She has never offered to help me or the baby in any way, shape or form. She’s basically here to see her son and that’s it. Like, about 3 weeks ago, I made a small pot of coffee (enough for 2 cups). I went to go nurse the baby while waiting and at some point my mother-in-law shows up, lets herself inside. When I came out, she had drank the entire pot. I had no coffee grounds left. Or she’s eaten my leftovers straight out of the fridge multiple times. And she’s always like, “Thanks for the food/coffee!” As if I offered it to her when I absolutely didn’t because all she’s doing is making my life miserable. I told my husband to speak to her about it, and he told me he did, but I truly don’t think so. I spoke up the last time she was here (3 weeks ago) and told her she needed to stop helping herself because she’s eating and drinking stuff that I wanted and/or made for myself. She said, “Oh, I’m sorry” and then stopped coming around for a while. Well, today I made 4 homemade pizzas. I told the kids to come help themselves to dinner and that I had to go get the baby down for a nap real quick and would be right back. Well, it took me like 45 minutes because the baby is fussy. I come back out and all the pizza was gone and my mother-in-law and husband are sitting there chowing away. I just said, “Are you kidding me right now?” My husband asked what was going on, and I said, “You guys couldn’t have even left me a slice? That’s so awesome of you guys! Thanks!” And start to walk off. My oldest son (13) comes in, and he’s like, “Mum, I left you out a plate. I put it right on the counter” and walks over to grab it and low and behold, that’s gone too. The mother-in-law said, “I thought it was leftover from dinner.” So my son’s apologizing to me even though he did nothing wrong, but my mother-in-law and husband just stand there? They literally aren’t saying anything. So I looked at both of them and said, “You both need to leave, now.” My husband then decides to speak, saying that it was an “honest mistake” and that “no one meant any harm” and said I was making a mound out of a mole hill, which honestly just pissed me off further, so I snapped again and said, “Yeah, except every time your mother comes here, I end up going without because she eats or drinks my portion of everything. But sure, let’s defend someone taking food out of my mouth, shall we?” His mother just storms out of the house and my husband looks at me like I’m insane, so I say, “Quick, chase her” and walk out. He won’t come home. But at this point, I don’t even want him to come home because it means his mother will stay away.So my aunty has 2 kids. One is a boy who is so a bit able and no trouble at all. He is 8 and my evil cousin who is a girl and is 2. She wants everything. Seriously, if you have something, and she doesn’t, she holds her breath and won’t breathe until she has it and cries non-stop until she gets what she wants. Anyway, it was the 8-year-old’s birthday, and he was having a birthday party. However, my aunty told me it would be a party for the girl too, whose birthday was in December. There would be 2 cakes, birthday banners with her name on and people would have to pretend it was her birthday too. How is this fair to the actual birthday boy? Anyway, she also told everyone we had to bring gifts for both the kids and if not we weren’t able to attend because it had to be fair for both of them. I did not buy presents for both kids but attended anyway, and it was something from my worst nightmare. Everyone was tending to the girl, and no one besides me acknowledged the actual birthday boy. People even sang happy birthday to her, taking pictures of her, she got loads of money, a new bike, etc. She got double what the birthday boy got. I felt so bad for him and I saw him crying in his room, so I went up, and he said no one cares about him. So I argued with my aunty regarding this, and she said I have ruined the day and I need to leave. What an entitled woman and her horrid entitled bratty kid.Once, my mum and I were staying with my aunt when I was about 5 years old. And one day my aunt thought I had stolen her money. There was an envelope in a book, and then it was gone. Who is guilty? Surely me! Oh, how much they tortured me, asked a million questions. In a couple of weeks, I even started to believe that I’d stolen the envelope, but I forgot where I put it. Mum even threatened me with the police. And when we were already on the train going home, my aunt called my mother and said in an innocent voice, “Oh, I was looking through my books and found the envelope in one of them. And I forgot that I had put it there myself.” My mother, of course, apologized to me for this. But I couldn’t trust her anymoreMy mother-in-law thinks that my husband should personally dig her vegetable garden and plant potatoes. When he timidly tried to object that he could hire a helper for her, she said, “What are you for then if you don’t want to do anything?” The husband calmly got into the car and drove home. A month and a half of complete silence. No calls, no messages. She is not interested in grandchildren. But it’s been so peaceful, words can’t describe it.When my child was 18 months old, my grandmother called me over and was like, “Here, try this juice. Can I give it to the baby?” I take a couple of sips without a second thought, thinking that I should check whether it’s too cold or sour. Then I realize I’ve swallowed some rotten stuff with a strange aftertaste. I spit this disgusting thing and ask her what it is. And my grandma is like, “Has it gone bad? That’s what I thought. The jar was bloated, and there was mold on top… But I picked it up carefully, nothing got into the cup.” It turns out that she found an old bloated jar in the pantry, and, instead of throwing out this junk, decided to give it to a 1-year-old child, but at the last moment decided to try it on me first. Good thing I was passing by, otherwise I don’t even know what would happen.My mum loves shops and clothes, so she buys her granddaughter a lot of clothes without even looking at it. I would better choose everything myself, but I accepted the gifts with gratitude because I thought that you don’t look a gift horse into the mouth. One day the grandparents came to take our 3-year-old to a cafe with children’s slides, pool and trampolines. I thought, “How should I dress her? It’s uncomfortable to climb in a dress or in jeans.” I dressed my daughter in a new sweatsuit that my mother had given me. When they returned, my child was dressed in jeans and a blouse embroidered with glass beads. And the mother said from the doorstep, “When I saw your daughter, I even cried how badly she was dressed, in some old clothes! I had to urgently buy new clothes and change her in the shop.” I said, “Mum, you gave me this sweatsuit! Here are the labels — I cut them off just now, here’s the bag — you brought it last week.” Silent scene. Mum silently walks away.Since our baby was born, my mother-in-law has done nothing but criticize me about my parenting. It’s been out of control. It would be one thing if it was good advice, but literally everything she suggests is dangerous. Things have been made worse due to her sister having a grandchild around the same time, so she’s constantly comparing. One of her biggest things is I don’t dress the baby properly, according to her. She basically acts like I’m committing child mistreat and says my baby is cold (I would never let my baby be cold). When she has the baby, she wraps the baby in these giant blankets. I’ll go to check on the baby, and the baby will be red and sweating like crazy! Well, I finally saw how the other grandchild is dressed. The temperature is in the 90s °F (32.2 °C) here. We went to visit, and this little baby had on a fur jacket, fuzzy pants, shirt, and socks. My baby is usually in a onesie and regular pants or pajama suit. No wonder she’s appalled with me, considering they expect the baby to be wrapped up in a fuzzy jacket in June! I don’t think there’s any getting through to her. My husband wants to just limit contact, but man, this sucks.I have a brother. When I had my baby, he invited me, saying, “We have some stuff left over for the baby. Come and see if there’s anything you need.” So I did. His wife brought a very shabby stroller (I already had a stroller, but that’s not the point). The point is that they offered me to buy it, and also to buy used baby hats, onesies and so on. I politely declined, saying we have everything. But I still feel ashamed for my family.Many years ago, when I just got out of maternity leave to work, my husband and I really wanted to buy a car. We began to save money. At the same time, my husband’s sister and her family bought a new apartment and started to renovate it and buy new furniture. Everything top-notch: Italian doors, parquet, white leather sofa, gold chandeliers, etc. But they could afford it: my brother-in-law was earning very well then, they traveled to Turkey every year. And then my husband’s sister came to us — they had run out of money, while Italian kitchen furniture was on sale now. She said, “You are saving. Lend us the money, we will pay you back in a month.” How could we refuse? They’re family. We gave them everything we had saved. And in 3 weeks they left for Turkey… It was a shame: we didn’t go on holiday because we were saving money. And they returned the money only a year later.