Cheers to All the Wonderful Mothers-in-Law

Y’all! Let’s be real. Mother in laws, aka MILs, get a bad rap. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with a friend, coworker, or even a random woman I met while standing in line at Starbucks, and it turned to the topic of families which eventually veered towards her MIL and how awful she is. Said mother-in-law is mean, doesn’t know boundaries, hates the daughter-in-law and needs to disappear as fast as possible. I always awkwardly smile and quickly switch to the next subject because I have never had that experience or anything remotely close to that with my own mother in law.

I am here to say that I actually LOVE my mother in law.

Seriously, she’s amazing and has been that way since day one. I look forward to spending time with her just as I do my own mother. I didn’t have to earn my way into the family or this current status; she welcomed me with open arms from the very beginning.

She is Super Thoughtful

My MIL has always been very thoughtful. Maybe it is because she has a career in education where she spends countless hours pouring out love to other kids and their families, or maybe she has always been this way. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t go unnoticed. A week after my husband and I got married, we packed all of our things up, leaving our friends and family, and moved to New Orleans for his residency. Talk about a transition. To add to all of these changes, my husband worked almost 80 hours a week leaving me to figure out the city on my own. During that time, my MIL called me at least every other day for the first month just to make sure I was adjusting. Just last week, I returned to work from maternity leave after the birth of our first child. Of course, she didn’t let the day pass without checking to see how I did leaving my baby and how the first day back went. It’s nice to know that she is always thinking of me in every phase of life.

She Buys the Best Gifts

This probably goes hand-in-hand with her overall thoughtfulness, but she always buys the best gifts. Whether it is something with a monogram, super cute jewelry (that I never buy myself and always get complimented on when I wear) or luggage organizers to feed my need for order in every aspect of my life, I can always tell that she put a lot of time and effort into picking out the perfect item for the occasion, and it pays off. There’s no re-gifting going on in this house!

She Treats Me Just Like One of Her Own Children

I’ve never felt like the odd man out when it comes to my MIL or any of my in-laws. Whatever she does for my husband and his sister, I am included. Gifts, phone calls, group texts, activities – I have always felt that I am a valued member of the group. This makes it easy to go on vacation with them and spend holidays with them. As much as I love my family and we have our own traditions, I look forward to spending time with my in-laws just as much. And because of my MIL, I have come to think of a lot of their traditions as some of my own so it doesn’t feel like I’m intruding – it just feels second nature.

She Will Literally Do Anything to Make Our Lives Easier

I gave birth to our daughter two weeks early. In my perfect planning world, I was going to give birth on my due date and had arranged for child care eight weeks later and at the beginning of the month. Of course, life doesn’t always happen as we expect it to, so I found myself needing to return to work two weeks early and with no child care secured for another two weeks. My husband was able to take a week off, but we still had to figure out care for the second week. Without hesitation, my mother-in-law said she would fly down for a week to ease our troubles. Every day for a week, she took care of our baby and sent videos throughout the day, easing the transition back to work. This is only the most recent time I can think of where she has happily volunteered to help us in whatever capacity we needed at that time.

I always hear so many horror stories about MILs and as you can see, that is not the case with mine .. and I know I am not alone!

If you can relate, feel free to chime in about what makes your MIL so special. We need to give the amazing MILs just as much credit and publicity as we do the not so great ones.

5 COMMENTS

  1. I love my MIL. She’s always there when we need here even though she lives hours away. She’s never overstepped boundaries and reminds me I’m a good mom when I have felt like I was failing at life. She’s great!

  2. My MIL was very thoughtful too. As she’s in the last that’s of her life it makes me sad for ask the years give by. Hug and appreciate your MIL and all of your family.

  3. I love my MIL!! She is the best! She has helped us so much through the years. I can honestly say that we are good friends. As you said, I also look forward on spending time with her.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here