S/O How often does your family & your inlaws interact?
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Anonymous
| Post about SIL being mean to poster's sister got me wondering, how often to the two sides of your family mingle? |
Anonymous
| Pretty much never. Only when I host something for my kids, but then they don't speak to each other. My inlaws come when my parents host a holiday, but my inlaws don't invite my parents to theirs. I'm an only child and my parents live in the DC area. |
Anonymous
| Never - they've never met |
Anonymous
| Often. My parents and my husband's parent live less than 5 miles apart. They both always come over for Thanksgiving and grandkid birthdays, plus other random cookouts/family dinners. |
Anonymous
| My inlaws didn't even invite my parents to the baby shower they through for me. My parents were so bummed about that one. |
Anonymous
*threw. Talk to text fail |
Anonymous
| Literally just at the wedding. I don't believe they've been in the same room any other time. |
Anonymous
You didn't ask for your inlaws to be invited? |
Anonymous
| Probably only once a year, but that's because my ILs live in NY and only come to visit about that often. When my ILs are visiting my mother will make an effort to stop by to say hello and she and MIL have sometimes gone for a walk or out for tea/coffee. We Facetime or Skype a lot with ILs and they definitely ask about my parents and will speak with them if they happen to be around when we're chatting. |
Anonymous
| Often. My ILs live with me now, but even before that, my Mom and MIL often spoke on the phone. |
Anonymous
| Never. The only time they met was at the wedding. Live in different areas of the country, one side is in a difficult to travel to area and they don't care to leave either. |
Anonymous
It was a surprise and it was the only shower I had. I can't remember an event that my inlaws invited my parents to though. My inlaws invite themselves though when my parents host Thanksgiving. |
Anonymous
| Only if they happen to be in town at the same time, but they don't interact when we aren't around. That makes me sad because my parents have great relationships with both of my siblings' in-laws, but my husband's parents just aren't interested in keeping in touch. My dad tried to have dinner with them one time when he was in their city for business, but they "had other plans". I personally would drop other plans for someone that was coming in from out of town, especially if they were family. I guess their definition of family and ours is very different. They also aren't close with their extended families whereas I'm BFFs with my cousins. |
Anonymous
Well maybe that's what your parents should be doing. |
Anonymous
|
A couple of times a year. My husband and I are both onlies, so we host most of the holidays.
But this is also part of my family’s culture. I have met “the other side of the family” for all of my parents’ siblings - in most cases, I knew these people quite well. For example, my mom’s sister had several children with her first husband and later married again - even after the divorce, I knew my cousin’s dad and his second wife, as well as his brother (my cousins uncle) and mother (my cousin’s other grandma). I also knew my aunt’s MIL from her second marriage. I’ve never lived in the same town as any of these people, but I know them well mostly because my grandparents on both sides of my family had large houses and were very open to hosting their children’s in laws. In some cases, the other family also had this sort of culture, and they hosted us for events. |