Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ I wish I hadn't always been right by my husband's side, always. It never really occurred to me to encourage alone time between he and his parents without me. They would have really appreciated that.

What made you realize that this is important?

We had a restaurant birthday dinner planned for MIL. At the last minute FIL was feeling ill. We made the decision that DH would take his mother out to the restaurant and I would stay home to keep an eye on FIL. Mother and son had such a good time. It clearly was so special to her, she cherished it so much. It's just nice, to sometimes, step aside and let the nuclear family reconnect.