My husband is an only. I get along with his mother fine, but I don't go out of my way to have a relationship with her or spend time with her. She was super demanding and manipulative in the early years of our marriage. It took a while for my husband to see it, but he understands my distance now. I am the oldest of GG. My husband doesn't much like my family, but he tolerates them when he has to.

My husband has one sibling. We rarely see his parents or sibling. I'm by no means close to them.

I'm an only. We spend lots of time with my parents and my husband is close to them.

I am the youngest of BGB. My family is very extroverted and loud and all family events are hectic, chaotic and busy. My wife is the youngests of BBG. Her family is introverted and family gatherings are quiet, and often people get together, but do their own thing when together. We both get along well with both of our sets of in-laws.

Same situation here, OP. I'm an only child and my mother is difficult. DH has brothers and his parents are nice people.

From looking around at my family, friends and acquaintances, I see there is a certain correlation between having only one child, and being generally a difficult person to live with. The parents of only children I know usually have anxiety, are perfectionist, some of them feel easily overwhelmed and are rather self-centered, and sometimes that makes them obnoxious... so it makes sense that they wouldn't have a large family.

Of course it's wrong of me to generalize from my non-statistically significant sample and of course not all parents of only children have the same personality!

My husband and I are both middle children in 3 children families. We are both equally close with our parents and siblings, but getting together with my family is much better, as my brothers have children (we are the only ones with grandchildren on his side). Plus, we just have more in common with my side. I dread trips to his home town, even though I get along well with my in laws.

DH has a younger brother. I have two younger brothers. DH's brother is like another bro although he is older than me. I get along well with all the boys and enjoy spending time with them and their families although they all live far away. We visit and our house is always open for stays. We will be staying with one of my brothers for 6 wks in the summer (my other brother and family will visit for 2 wks) and hopefully, DH's brother will visit since it's only an hour by plane.

I love my mil. Sweet lady and I think she did a great job raising DH and his brother.