Don’t Like Your Mother-In-Law?

After living through five marriages, I cannot help my relief at divorcing not only my husbands, but their mothers as well.

Looking back, I can see real connections between my personalities of my mother-in-laws and the breakdowns of my marriages to their sons.

Husband # 1: Kurt's mother was a bitter woman. Her own husband had left her with four children to raise alone. He gave her no child support and was an absent father, an example which Kurt did his best to follow.

Husband # 2: Shane's mother put up with a very abusive husband of her own. He was a drunk and a tyrant in his own home. This led Shane to be verbally and physically abusive towards me as well.

Husband # 3: Jim's mother was obsessed with him and he felt the same about her. He moved us from North Carolina to Virginia so we could be closer to his Mommy. She had a key to our house. She meddled in every area of our life. I knew I had to draw the line when she asked me why I'd stopped having sex with her son.

Husband # 4: Jim P's mother was a quiet woman who prayed for her son to change his ways. I should have listened to her, and my instincts, when she asked me the night before our wedding if I was sure I wanted to marry him.

Husband # 5: Ken had a love/hate relationship with his mother. Sadly, his hate for her carried over into a hate for me.

Having had five mother-in-laws, I've learned that when it is my turn, I'll be the In-Law instead of the Out-Law.