The world was created with and for love, peace and kindness for all mankind. While at home and secure in the knowledge of having a wonderful mother, who works on your nerves sometimes, it simply is unthinkable that evil lurks in your near future. Then it happens in slow motion, as if there is someone pushing the rewind/play button all the time. As a young lady, in-love with the man of her dreams you never envisage that you will actually come face to face with Cruella DeVille.  As a divorcee I can vouch for this myself, as I have had first-hand experience. If you wish your daughters to have wonderful marriages, please make this part of the ‘What a girl should know’ session.
Coming from a staunch Catholic household, I believed in Father Christmas and the tooth fairy. None the wiser that the ‘wicked witch of the west’ is awaiting on my imminent arrival. Your future family is wonderful, cause you are dating a great guy: charming, fun and his beliefs on family issues is in parallel with yours. It is believed that the child shows how the family is, or should be. Your expectations are not crushed on the first meeting. Mummy dearest is so nice and kind. She even invites you to Sunday lunch. Wow, isn’t she nice? Oh, I have the best mother-in-law. You buy gifts and phone her daily and rather spend Saturday afternoon with her when the boyz go out to watch the rugby. You spill your heart out when he goes out with the boys on Friday after work and you do not see him until late Saturday afternoon, when you visit mummy dearest.
Ladies, stop! It is the start of the end. The minute she sees that her ‘oh so wonderful son’ is bringing you home, she devises a plan to make you weak and cut you up slowly.  You will tell me ‘but my mother-in-law is so kind. We know each other for months and she is the president for the prayer group in her church and she rallies for the rights of women. Blah, blah, blah,’  Yeah right, mine too. Religious to the end, but boy oh boy, are you in for a surprise.  She is evil incarnate.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that mothers-in-law are bad, cause they are my and your mother anyway. It’s just when her domain over her ‘baby’ is threatened, then the claws come out. As a young lady you can go out and get married, good luck. Mum won’t mind cause she will lavish you with pomp and flair, but when it is her son, the only man she actually loves, then there is trouble in paradise. No woman born on this earth is good enough. Period. End of discussion.
Go ahead. Get married. Have 25 kids and a dog. Have a wonderful life as mother, wife, friend and daughter-in-law. Nothing is impossible, except a mother-in-law.
My nightmare had only 4 boys and it had to be me to be the first daughter-in-law. The previous girlfriends did not last long, but I am stubborn as a mule. I always get what I want. She was fine at first, but boy did she change when we got married. She decided about his salary, our accommodation, the kids, the time spent with her family. My family ceased to exist, and I only saw them when he was away for work. She told him wonderful versions of her ‘truth’, which he believes. I was bad and awful to his mother. The woman who raised him single-handedly, and so the story goes. I never called her mom or mother or something in that line. It was always Mrs DeVille, until shortly before the divorce she became Auntie Cruella.  Now she is just someone who is related to my daughters, and dwells on earth, I think.
So girls, beware. If you would adhere to advice, go and rent the movie ‘Monster-in-law’.  It will open your eyes to the reality of in-laws. I will be a mother-in-law in the future, but luckily I will get boys into the family. Be it as it may, I am all for welcoming my future sons into my household and I wish them all the luck.
Hope you girls do think twice about this, as I am about to take the leap of faith again. Yes, you got it. I intend to get married again, and face my demons, but I am lucky this time. Got a wonderful ‘to-be’ and an honest and truly great woman to be my mother-in-law, or rather, she will be just a mother and not an in-law. Let the wedding bells ring.