I was just wondering if anyone also has super dramatic MENA MILs and wanted to share stories. Although you see my husband is from israel my MIL actually lived her whole childhood in tunisia. She is extremely dramatic and constantly putting on some sort of a show. I was thinking about it when I saw wahranias post about the song with the word "omri" in it. My MIL is always calling my husband omri, or "my eyes", "i would die for you", "you are my sacrifice". She is always making a big huge deal out of nothing and no phone call home goes without a major cryfest on her part.

I just thought it might be fun to share funny in law stories. I really truly love my MIL but sometimes she is sooo hard to take. I come from a very small family I was practically an only child and my parents were as dry as toast so sometimes its just so hard for me to relate!

I want to edit this to say, Im sorry to generalize, I know not all MENA MILs are dramatic. I also know some are, so want to share stories.....

My inlaws are pretty laid back actually. The exchanges between his mom and dad actually remind alot of the exchange between him and I. My mother in law and I have very very similar personalities and so do he and his father.

They have been living with us for 2 weeks and are staying until January. LOL I will update you then.

lol lol lol

I can relate - my inlaws just stayed with us for almost 3 months because I had a baby and she was there to "help". My husband and I were just so happy when they were gone. It sounds so bad, she really did help, I guess... But the drama makes it so hard to take.

You are lucky it sounds like your inlaws are really great.

My future in-laws are the opposite of dramatic.

MY family, on the other hand....

My MIL is sent from heaven...the stories of her are all to personal and precious to me. Wish I had something more juicy to give you but I don't.

i think the only thing she gets dramatic about is him coming home to visit. she is always saying when u coming...i will die before u get here again. only other thing she was crying when i was there cuz i came 2 times so far to be with her son. other then that since we are not there i dont see any drama...not saying there is none but none that i know of unless he tells me.

oh yeah another on i can think of was when he was having problems with his ex wife to be...his mom threw tea on her. dont know if she actually threw it on her or if it was just an accident that was dramatized.

I can't say that my mother in law is very dramatic, for the most part she's pretty laid back (at least as far as mother in laws go). She does, however, get very dramatic whenever my husband is there visiting and it comes time for him to leave. She starts crying about a week before. IMO that's a bit much. My mom and I have a fantastic relationship and I don't think she's ever cried once when i've left and I haven't lived at home since I was 15 (boarding school, college, etc). That's not to say that she doesn't miss me, but it's just not very emotional. So maybe it's just me not being used to it, but sometimes it's just like ugh.

She also gets very upset that I don't call every week to say hi. Honestly, I talk to my husband's family more than I talk to some of my own... my family just isn't the kind that needs to talk to each other every day/week or whatever. With the time difference between here and there it's just not possible a lot of the time - I'm up at 6am to go to work (and I just can't wake up any earlier than that to call and chit chat) and normally I don't get home from work until after 8 or 9 at night, I get home, eat, and go to bed... I get a chance to call about every three weeks or so. So my husband gets an earfull everytime he calls home about how much I don't call. Does this happen to anyone else?? Am I the only one that doesn't call daily/weekly? I think some of it is that she just doesn't understand how much my job is a part of my life - she couldn't understand why I couldn't take off a month to visit with my husband. HA! a month! I don't even think I could have gotten a week right now... I'm sure it sounds like I'm being insensitive and I really do love her a lot and she only wants me to call because she loves me, but this is something I've been needing to vent about for awhile

My MIL is cool. She and my husband talk once a week and no tears or drama so far (it's been 5.5 months since he left Egypt). She cried when he left Egypt, of course. I'd say her emotions are fairly "normal".

Well I don't have a MIL.

BUT...........my husband has two younger sisters and the oldest of the two acts like she's the mother and has played that role ever since she was 15 years old.

She has been good to me, though she cried every night that he was in Alex with me so I'm not sure how they'll do when he's here. There's definite drama as one would expect with siblings but I don't really witness it at all other than his telling me the stories of what's going on. I'm sure I'll have more to share once he's here inshalla.

My fiance's family expects me to call them at least once a week and I don't. I always feel so guilty about it too because I know they just care about me and want to hear from me, but I get really busy, I talk to him every night, I have a daughter and work full time and just don't have time to call Ghana, Holland, Burkina Faso, and Missouri once a week. My mom expects a call once a week and that's enough drama cause if I miss a week it's like the Berlin wall is being rebuilt, she freaks out majorly. I really did sort of feel that I was alone in this so I'm glad to see someone else with the "keep in contact" problem. I was thinking maybe I could send a letter once a month and set up a pattern of my own that they could try to adjust to instead. His family is very close, but there are sooooooooooo many of them.

my mother in law is an angel. she has supported our relationship from day one. showering me with gifts, hugs, kisses, delicious foods, and warm conversation (translated by abdou though!lol) she is so happy her son found love...moroccan or not. muslim or not. she's a strong woman and i admire her greatly! if only my own mom were the same..........poor abdou married into a strange family!

my MIL also doesnt understand my job since she has never worked a day in her life and she gets insulted i dont call her. its just that i cant imagine what i would talk to her about once a week. my husband is a VERY good buffer though and he explains stuff so his mom can put it into perspective but i am sure she still is insulted and i KNOW she talks about me to her daughters. oh well!


oh and also, she is the same about us leaving/her leaving. when she was leaving after being here for the summer she would leave the dinner table and throw up because she was so upset. this was after bragging that she never threw up in her life. see what i mean about the drama?!

Good topic

Before my husband got his visa he took his mother to the doctor... when the DR told her there was nothing wrong with her she cursed!
I thought for sure she would fake a heart attack when it was time for him to leave but she just avoided him altogether. She hasn't spoken to him since he left in April and she even tried to get a fatwa against our marriage from a Saudi shaykh during umrah... she explained to the shaykh that her son married a CHRISTIAN woman from the US and moved away from her. What sucks is I'm NOT christian I'm MUSLIM and he's told her that from the beginning but she absolutely can not fathom that there are any muslims in America so it just goes in one ear and out the other I don't blame her much because she's old and set in her ways.... she's deeply engrained in the culture of their country and she isn't able to see past that and when I visit or we move there I intend to treat her with the utmost respect. I love her because she's the one who gave birth to my husband and raised him to be the incredible man that he is today.
The problem I have, however, is that I'm sure this hurts my husband even though he puts on his big brave face and acts like it's no big deal. I can't imagine if my mother refused to speak to me for months.
To make matters worse, my family is a pain in the rear... we're not very close anyway (other than me and my mom) and they all pretty much had it set in their minds that they were going to hate him no matter what and he's trying so hard to show them that he's not at all like they imagined. He came to the other side of the world and left all his family and friends behind just to be with me only to be shunned by my family here and his mother there. It's sad and I hate that I can't change it for him.

Ditto with my mother-in-law to be...this sounds so similar to what I would like to say about mine...wow! She is a dream to be around and so sweet. I would really like to say too that my future papa-in-law is a riot...so fun to be around and talking to me in French (with Kamel having to translate) but he was always smiling when I spoke and would give me the thumbs up when Kamel would translate what I said. hahahah I love my Algerian family so much we all cried when I left.