The Battle of The Wombs

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law tension every so often occurs from a belief that each is criticising or undermining the other. This mutual unease can also be exacerbated by the son's failure to manage his mother when she oversteps her mark. Although a daughter-in-law is an adult in her own household in her marriage, certain mother in laws forget this and tend to interfere. They forget that they also had to learn the craft in their time and want to use their expertise to control, fast track and dominate the new mother.

This then leads to the unfortunate and tricky question, "who is mother in this family", with a final say over how the household must be run. If this question is not addressed, the struggle to achieve the same position as the primary woman ensues. There can only be one primary woman in any marriage situation and most mother in laws tend to fail to accept this reality when their sons get married. Their justification is, "you don't know how I suffered to raise my son." This tension is what I call the battle of the wombs and the son who fails to defend his wife the third force that fuels this battle.