Let me start by saying that my father-in-law is very cool and I get along with him great. My mother-in-law is a whole other story. She is manipulative in everything that she does and always sets unrealistic conditions even on fun activities. (Like demanding that I cook Thanksgiving dinner to be ready by 1pm… when I was planning on 3 pm so I could go for a run in the morning before I started the cooking process)
She has never been all that willing to spend time with our kids, but tries to make us feel guilty that she does not see them as much as she wants to. Then she got 2 cats, after my wife explained to her that our oldest is extremely allergic to cats and in order to visit, we would need to give him 3 different allergy medications, a preventative inhaler, and a rescue inhaler, all to be able to spend an hour up there.
Our dog which has always been welcomed up there because it spends the entire time playing with their dog outside, is no longer welcome because the cat’s don’t like it when there is a second dog on the property… they have 15 acres enclosed with the same invisible fence system that we have, so the dog is almost never in the house. We did not find this out until yesterday when the wife called to see if they would be home so we could drop the dog off so we can attend my Grandmother’s funeral in NE Wisconsin. Fortunately we have a friend who is going to come over and let her out several times during the day and play with her.
She publicly ridicules us at family events because we don’t want to get our kids a video game system. She also questions our ideas on getting our boys books and board games instead of electronic stuff, thinks that it is ridiculous that we pray before every meal and at bedtime with the kids, and does not like the idea of me being self-employed, even if I make quite a bit more than when I was working for a firm. She said that I don’t have “Job Security” to which I respond, yea, I had job security at the last place right up until I was laid off because of downsizing.
This is just a small sample of the issues we have been having with my Mother-in-law. The really frustrating part is anytime that they have any type of event and we don’t attend or if they want to meet up for some reason and we are not available, she flips out on my wife. I explained to my wife to tell her very bluntly, that we will not be going up there until she gets rid of the cats and that we will not be inviting her to anything at our house anymore. Including holiday’s or birthdays.
Do you get along with your in-laws or are they psychotic control freaks like my mother-in-law?
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Originally posted by btrage
and about five of them are good guys, so our family get togethers are interesting
). Now, my SIL and her family, on the other hand...ye gods...let's just say the less time I spend around them the better.
). But she is a super person, caring and respectful. She never wants to "impose" on anyone. And she has an amazing inner strength - she survived cancer and the death of her spouse of 50 years. 
I agree that you shouldn't take your kids to her house because of the cats, but I don't think you should stop inviting her to your house. You're better than that from what I can tell.
