My mother in law lives alone and is in her 70’s.  My wife has been making comments about how lonely she’s been and right away I knew what was coming, but I really don’t think I would be able to handle living with her.  She is a very difficult and judgmental woman.  I’ve always been respectful, but seriously a little bit of her goes a long way.   

When we actually had ‘the talk’ about her moving in it got ugly pretty quick.  I was upfront about my reasons, but apparently that’s selfish.  She mentioned that we have a free room, but we are also planning on having another child at some point as well.  She thinks I have no compassion for her mother’s situation and I told her that that’s not true and we could look into assisted living places.  That was a mistake.  She said those places are a step above prison and how could I even consider sending her mother there when she could be with family. 

My wife has been less than kind to my own mother.  She wouldn’t even allow us to stay with her when we went to my home town.  She insisted we get a hotel because she doesn’t have a good relationship with her and refuses to put even the tiniest effort into repairing that relationship.  

This isn’t a tit for tat though, it really just makes my resolve about the situation a little stronger.  This is my home as much as hers and I should be comfortable here.   If her mother were to come live with us I would lose that.  