Will I have a Mother or Monster-in-law?

Whenever anyone gets married one of the biggest looming worries is, “What will my in-laws be like? Will I have a Mother or Monster-in-law?” Fortunately, I think that both Richard and I lucked out. Why is it that everyone worries about these things? Whenever two people come together in marriage, it is not only two people. Instead it is the joining and merging of two families into one with the central binding link being the newly wedded couple. There are years of traditions and prejudices on both sides that now need to be gone through and changed into something new. Will your in-laws or parents be okay with you changing out their tradition for the others. While this doesn’t consciously go through your mind when you think about your new future in-laws, I think that subconsciously it does. You know that you have at least one thing in common with them, their child, your spouse.

It can be a very trying thing to be thrown in with a bunch of people that you’ve never met, so you’re the outsider, yet you know that you are now intimately tied to them for forever. When it comes time for the holidays you may want to stay close to home and what you know. But I think that it is very important to build a good relationship with your in-laws and be willing to spend as much time with them as you do your own family.

I know that those first few years can be a very difficult time, especially if your families are at different stages in life. I know that I am the second oldest in my family, so we still have a lot of weddings and missions and things that we are constantly going to support. Richard on the other hand is second youngest so all of those big events have already passed. As your marriage gets more established, you’ll be able to find that middle ground between your two families, and until then just remember that you love them both. And that there are different times in your lives when you will favor one side over the other and ultimately that’s okay.