[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: in-laws, & owls on Martha Stewart

[Amanda]

Responding to a random inlaw message.

Typically for a Geist, I will buck the trend. Atypically for a Geist, I am
serious.

I know inlaws can be a pain. I know some of them should be taken out and
pushed through an outhouse hole headfirst. Still. Still. Know the riches
you've got.

My mother died when I was 21. Jan's parents were both dead before I met him.
Only my father was alive when we married. He lived to see my oldest child,
and got to hold her once; he died when she was 3 months old. My uncle and
aunt-by-marriage on my mother's side died before my children were born. My
aunt on my father's side died the *day* my daughter was born. Her husband,
my distant uncle-by-marriage, died on my daughter's fifth birthday; she had
never seen him. His passing marked the very last of the older generation of
my family. My husband has one living aunt, far away in Ohio, who has seen my
children only once.

My brothers live 200 miles away, made little effort in the past to sustain a
relationship, and now are actively trying *not* to have one. Jan's brother
and sister live far away in California, have seen my oldest child twice,
middle child once, and my youngest, never.

I am never irritated by my children's grandparents. I never have to be an
ogre when I override some overly-permissive grandparent's or uncle's
promise. My parenting skills are neither questioned nor criticized. I will
never have to deal with the embarrassment of my children learning the
escapades of my youth. I never have to "repair" my children's manners after
they've picked up bad habits after a stay with relatives. I will never have
to hear how my mother or mother-in-law dealt with swallowed baby teeth,
fevers, or tantrums, or how they patched perfectly good jeans instead of
buying new ones like lazy people do. I never had my house taken over when I
brought my babies home. I am never interfered with when disciplining my
children.

I am a wonderful wife and nobody will ever tell me different. I will never
have to sit through boring evenings hearing about my husband's misspent
youth. I never have to pretend to like some inedible Traditional Old Family
dish. I don't have to shoo anyone out of my kitchen for puttering around in
my way. I never will.

Lucky me.

--Amanda

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"Wisdom is found on the desolate hillside, El-ahrairah, where none comes to
feed, and the stony bank where the rabbit scratches a hole in vain."
 --Watership Down