The Titus 2 Mother-in-Law

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I love looking at reels on Instagram. They’re filled with things that make me laugh out loud or teach me something new. But lately, they’ve also been filled with a lot of disparaging remarks by younger women about their mothers-in-law! It’s not just in the reels either. Comments are full of anecdotes of inconsiderate, rude, and even cruel mothers-in-law.

I can’t relate. My own mother-in-law was very supportive, but she was also very hands-off. She never popped in unexpectedly, but she always seemed to enjoy it when we came to visit her. One of my favorite memories of my mother-in-law involved a brand-new stylish raincoat that I purchased for myself when I started making my own money.

I came home after work one day and carelessly left my new coat on the back of a kitchen chair. The next day I noticed that there was something oily all over one side of the front of my new coat. Someone had accidentally shaken salad dressing on my coat when they were fixing something to eat.

I was really upset. This was my only nice dress coat, purchased with my own money and now it was ruined.

I shared my tail of woe with my mother-in-law and she insisted that I leave the coat with her for a few days. She thought she might be able to get the stain out. It quickly became a quest for her. She tried her favorite cleaning products and even things like salt and lemon.

When I would drop by, she would regale me with stories about what she had tried since my last visit to remove the tell-tale stain. It sort of became our thing. I don’t think she ever got the stain out, and eventually, the stain started to fade because the fabric was getting threadbare! But that incident brought us a little closer. Maybe it was because she was trying to help and I let her. That give-and-take gave us a relationship as women together, separate from our relationship with her son and my husband.

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