The Mother in-Law’s Manual

From two year’s of interviews with mothers-in-law of all varieties, some themes about what we want have emerged. It is not jewelry or electronics. It’s not even massages or good car mechanics, although that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?  What we most want cannot be wrapped in a box or bought on-line. It doesn’t [...]

While writing a book about mothers-in-law, I interviewed scores of women with married children. If every time a woman said to me, “I feel like I’m walking on eggs,” I’d gotten a coupon for a dozen eggs, I could now make egg salad for a battalion.
When talking about my own walking-on-eggs challenges with my older [...]

Many mothers-in-law find great pleasure in giving their children and their partners, as well as their grandchildren, great gifts.  The challenge is to decide what gift will, in fact, be great.  Both our sons and their wives live in distant cities and come the holidays and birthdays, I’m not always sure what they can [...]

The MOTHER-IN-LAW’S MANUAL is being published by Bright Sky Press which is owned by three smart, kind women. One of them, Ellen Cregan also runs her own graphics design business and she is in charge of cover design. (Check out all her excellent work at http://www.cregandesign.com.)
She has been through many variations and permutations of the [...]

BOOK CALLED THE MOTHER-in-LAW’S MANUAL?
Our children are grown.  Independent.   Solvent.  Drug Free.  Indeed, they are now married and buying houses.  My parenting problems, I thought, were DONE.
Who knew that there was an entire new learning curve waiting just around the corner—this mother-in-law manual?
When the children were growing up, I took advantage of all the parenting [...]

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW’S MANUAL: Creating Relationships That Work for Ourselves and Our Children is being published by Bright Sky Press for release in May, 2009.
Mothers-in-law are too often portrayed as jokes or toxic elements in the family.  I am not a joke nor am I toxic, and this is true for most mother-in-laws.  Just as we [...]

Mothers-in-law are defined by their children and their partners.  Often daughters-in-law have sharp words for their mothers-in-law.  Here are some of the complaints and some different ways of thinking about those complaints if you are a daughter-in-law.  If you are a mother-in-law, you will want the book.
My Mother in-Law Never Thinks I am Good Enough
We [...]