The Daughter-in-law's Survival Guide

Enlightening insights from dozens of women combine with expert guidance from a family therapist to offer no-nonsense advice for any woman who wants to improve her relationship with her mother-in-law. Often "I married him, not his family" just isn't true. Mothers-in-law are notoriously difficult to handle, and working out a noncombative relationship with "the other woman in his life" can be one of the most exhausting challenges that any woman faces. What the comedy club routines don't reveal is a less familiar potential for surprising generosity, knowing wisdom, and unexpected support. In The Daughter-in-Law's Survival Guide, the authors gather together stories and insights from more than fifty women of all ages and backgrounds whose relationships with their mothers-in-law range from the good to the bad to the ugly. Their candid accounts are interwoven with solid relationship advice about what daughters-in-law can do to overcome problems and begin to build happier, more satisfying relationships with their mothers-in-law. Supportive, step-by-step guidance helps daughters-in-law learn what is going on beneath the surface of day-to-day interactions with mothers-in-law, identify and analyse relationship dynamics, change thinking and behaviour that contribute to a dysfunctional dynamic, overcome chronic areas of conflict, and prevent new battles from breaking out - all without losing their dignity or their sanity.