My mother-in-law can never wait for her kids to call her on holidays, she has to be the first one to pick up the phone every time. So today came the Mother’s Day call…

She calls his cell phone, which is a good thing because I won’t answer the phone when I see her number come up, unless I happen to be in the mood for a battle. Anyway, the best place for cell phone signal in our house, besides my desk, is the master bathroom. One or both of us can often be found sitting on a bench under our bathroom window, gabbing on the phone. Yes, we’re speaker phone addicts. Cell phones work best when kept still during a conversation, so propped against the window frame with the speaker phone on, are where most of our telephone conversations take place. I’m not even sure why we have a home phone, or land line, as some would say, other than the fact that our phone company requires you to have a phone number if you want DSL and we definitely can’t do without DSL.

But once again, I digress and get off subject, as this post is supposed to be about my MIL.

So she calls while I’m soaking in the bathtub, having just returned from our traditional day before Mother’s day trip to the greenhouse. He brings the phone in and props it on the window sill. (What a jerk, huh?) I’m trapped in the bath tub, unable to move, unable to make a sound, as I didn’t want her to know I was within hearing distance, or she would have wanted to talk to me.

The call begins as usual, her complaining that he didn’t call her for Mother’s Day (Uh, wait, that’s not until tomorrow is it?), then complaining that she never sees him or our daughter, she doesn’t care to see me and my son.

Now my husband is always mighty cranky buy cialis tadalafil after a call from mom, and if he was a drinker, he’d probably get drunk while talking to her, luckily he’s not. After she calls and he listens to her complain for an hour or so, then I have to listen to him complain for two or three days. She complains that he doesn’t come to visit, he complains about not wanting to go visit. She invites him to a family get together, he tells her that we’re going to my families party instead (which 95% of the time we’re not even going to my families’ house, he just simply doesn’t want to go) then she starts accusing him of alienating himself from the family, he complains that the family never contacts him either…

The list goes on and on…

I’ve always blamed his mother for most of it, but today, trapped in that bath tub, unable to leave, unable NOT to hear the conversation, I realized that he brings it upon himself, or part of it at least. She mentioned a Fourth of July get together at her brother’s house, the one who’s wife just left him for his best friend, and instead of placating her and saying we’d try to make it or something like that, he simply says, very rudely too, in my opinion, we won’t be there.

This of course pisses her off angers her and makes her immediately start the guilt trips, the accusations, and all that stuff that mother are good at.

Well, this time he deserved it!  Maybe I won’t be so hard on her from now on, okay so that may be pretty hard to do, but I now realize that he sets her off.  He tries to push her buttons, thus bring her wrath pills online upon himself.

Hmmm, so I married Mr. Wonderful, but even he has a jerky streak!

Photo credits to Travelin’ Librarian