An Age-Old Holiday Tradition: Problems With Your In-Laws

An Age-Old Holiday Tradition: Problems With Your In-Laws Dear Sugar Radio is a weekly podcast from member station WBUR. A woman writes that whenever she and her husband visit their home town, her husband's mother is very demanding of all of his time — to the detriment of time with this woman's family. I thought we had a good solution to figure this out by giving both sets of in-laws a schedule of when and where we would be staying, but when we're at my family's house, my husband's mother will start calling his cell phone around 7 a.m. and every half-hour until he answers. But the guilt-tripping and the calling at 7 a.m., that's childish behavior and you're right to say to your husband, "This is not OK." Sponsor Message Listen To The Podcast Subscribe to Dear Sugar Radio: RSS iTunes Stitcher Enlarge this image toggle caption Jennie Baker Photography/Courtesy of WBUR Jennie Baker Photography/Courtesy of WBUR I think probably the husband feels guilty because he's very loyal to his family, and he has decided for reasons that are good and important to live far away from them. He can't go to his parents and say, "Listen, we really are going to spend half the time with my wife's parents and half the time with you."