Mother-in-Law HELL

Me and my partner of 3 years have a 4 month old baby.
His mother now lives round the corner from us, she moved back to the area when our baby was 1 month old so ’she can be closer to us’ but she has seen our baby no more than 6 times in total.
My family live 60 miles away but I speak to them all the time. Regarding Xmas it was decided that I would go stay at my mums over all the holiday period and my partner drove up on his days off to stay with us (he does 4 on 4 off).
He was working Xmas day so was not with us. His mother called round to see him for 5 mins and give him a present. But there was nothing for me or our baby. I’m not too bothered that she left me out as I get enough…

I declined my mother-in-law’s invitation for Christmas this year as we have never been able to have our own Christmas at home. She said I was feeling sorry for myself and I am a hypocrite hiding behind our potential home foreclosure and other financial difficulties. I always do what she wants! Always! She is so mean.

I don’t want to go to my boyfriend’s family’s house for Christmas because I’m not on speaking terms with his mother. Would it be really bad if I just didn’t go? I was thinking that I could do volunteer work as a way to get out of Christmas. If it’s completely necessary that I attend, would it be bad if I just played games on the computer and didn’t participate? I ask because I have a really hard time being fake. I would rather remove myself from the situation then be fake with people I do not like.

So I get along with my mother in law… usually… She comes from a tight knit southern family where Christmas is a HUGE deal. The whole family gets together every single year. For the past few years we’ve gone to her house for Christmas, as she threw a massive fit the one year I was able to talk hubby into travelling to my family’s house for the holiday. We decided it wasn’t worth all the drama, since Christmas isn’t a major deal to my parents. But, we’re expecting, due in September, and we’d really like to start having our own family Christmas, minus all the in laws. A while ago I made a casual comment to the effect of, “We can’t wait to start forming our own family traditions! I think I’ll be a good Santa!” She freaked. Apparently she’d already been planning the baby’s first Christmas at HER house,…

Yeah so I don’t have any epic tales of my mother-in-law (yet), just lots of little things. She’s not even my mother-in-law technically, since my boyfriend of six years and I are not married and don’t plan on doing so, although we are committed. It’s just not our thing. However, she performs the function of a mother-in-law. I met her when I was a child, and when I met her son it was my first year at university in a different city, and I didn’t know he was her son at first. It was a wierd coincidence. Anyway, I was kind of excited about meeting her again after knowing her as a child. The first time we hooked up, she seemed very nice and polite. However we spent the better part of an hour driving around looking for JUST the right restaurant to go to. There were plenty of restaurants…

Last Christmas my in-laws decided not to give me anything, but they gave my DOG a (butt ugly) hat and they gave my husband a ziplock freezer bag full of used LEGOS that they specifically informed us were from the thrift store. My husband is NOT 12 years old, does not play with LEGOS and did not appreciate the gift. We also don’t have any children, so there is no way that the LEGOS could have been for my husband to play with, with our kids.

I am Canadian and live in the UK with my English husband. It can be very difficult for me with all my family and friends 3000 miles away.

I put up with a lot from my MIL who made it clear that I wasn’t good enough for her son from the beginning. Normally I wouldn’t roll over so easily, but social rules in England are complex and you can’t just tell someone where to go regardless of what they’ve done or you become the outcast. I also didn’t want to cause problems for my husband, even though he never once stood up for me. Christmas 2007, however, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

We spent xmas in England with his family. Regardless that I was very homesick, she went out of her way to make me feel unwelcome and ruin my xmas. In the span of 48hrs she did the…