The day my daughter gets married, I won't be losing a daughter. I'll be gaining a title. Mother-in-law. It makes me shudder.
With my daughter banned from dating until she's at least 47 (less of a chance of her getting knocked up on the first date that way), it's not something I think about often. I'm not quite that narcissistic (I said not quite). Still, reading the story in Britain's The Telegraph over the weekend pronouncing mothers-in-law are no longer a joke, I felt betwixt and between about my very distant future.
The wife's mother, they say, is no longer stuck at home and thus in your face, telling you how her dear little Snookums likes his eggs and wants his pants pressed. Good to know - as I don't press pants and my breakfast-making skills are more of the "grab whole wheat frozen pancakes from freezer, pop in toaster oven, slap on plate with slab of butter" variety.
Because it's out of London (with a host of mother-in-law jokes I haven't heard stateside, better brush up), most of the statistics quoted in the piece are Britain-specific. But I'd imagine they'd translate rather closely to life on this side of the pond - they point to women getting married later, more women working, all social phenomena we're seeing in America. Of note? Mothers-in-law are spending less time with the grandchildren because of the changes.
It's meant to show they're butting in less, which this daughter-in-law supports, but it made me a little sad. If, by some miracle, my husband lets his little girl out on unchaperoned at say, 36, and we end up grandparents, will the fast pace of today's life have jumped to such hyperspeed that we never get to see the little munchkins? While I grew up in the same town as one set of grandparents, the town where the second set had a second house, my daughter has one set of grandparents living four states away. My own parents ask to see her frequently, but factor in my job, my husband's and the jobs of both of my parents, and there are weeks that go by without the schedules jiving just right for a meet-up.
If that's the kind of future for the new mother-in-law, I'd rather have the jokes.
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