It’s essential that the two of you cherish and protect your alone time, which will strengthen your bond despite the new household changes. The time you and your spouse may have spent together watching TV after putting the kids to bed or after a long day’s work might be interrupted by her presence. Your mother-in-law living in the home can potentially eliminate the intimacy factor between you and your spouse. You might say, “Mom, I know you may not agree with all of our choices, but it would be great if you could show your support in front of the children.”

Also, encourage your mother-in-law to respectfully support you and your spouse’s disciplinary decisions, or, at the very least, not verbally challenge or criticize them in front of the children.

Just be sure that everyone understands their role. In this context, your MIL might simply tell either of you when one of the kids is out of line and allow you to handle the issue. Perhaps, you want to leave the disciplining up to you and your spouse.

Then, you may want to explain what you expect of her.

Include everything that’s relevant-major infractions, typical punishments, and quirks of each individual child.

You and your spouse should sit down with his mother and explain to her how disciplining is done in your household.

Although there are bound to be some disagreements between all the adults over what’s right or wrong for the children, talking about discipline beforehand can help to get everyone on the same page and set clear boundaries. Similar to household chores, you will also want to outline how discipline will take place in your changing home environment. For example, you or your spouse might prefer to cook most meals but request that your MIL (if physically capable) help out with the laundry and house-cleaning.Įxplain your disciplinary process for children.

However, if this move is permanent, the three of you need to decide who will take care of what from here on out.

Or, if you are temporarily moving in with her, you might not mind having to move up something like dinner time to suit her regular schedule. If the living arrangement is only temporary, you might feel okay releasing the reigns and getting a break from some of your household chores.

How you choose to handle things will depend largely on your personal preferences and your MIL’s.

To prevent such a bumping of heads, discuss the details of the household early on. X Research source You and your spouse may have always done things a certain way and find yourselves having to submit to your MIL’s methods instead. When there are several generations of adults living in a household, it can be easy to get in a war about how the cooking, cleaning, and shopping is done.

A wife and a mother game guide