Bringing the in-laws together

I have a peacemaking headache. I.e., the headache that comes from making peace between two warring factions, my mother vs my mother-in-law.

I am mostly, of course, rooting for my own mother, since we have the same views, priorities, faults, preferences. We both think my kids' happiness is more important than ironing clothes and keeping the house in impeccable order.

My mother-in-law's priorities are washing, ironing, pre-arranging food in the fridge, just so, bla, bla, bla. She loves my kids, and they love her, but she thinks of me, at best, a mediocre homemaker.

So when she comes over and immediately makes underhanded comments about how the flowers are going to die because "no one waters them," I get a little annoyed, to say the least.

Today, she did just that, and it just about ruined our Easter lunch. She calmed down after a while, well, after I told her she could do my laundry and iron my clothes, and then it was my mother and HER potty mouth I had to control.

I had my two kids vying for me attention, my husband asking me stupid questions, my mother whispering things to me in Spanish, my mother-in-law loudly talking about every single thing she did this weekend (hour-by-hour) and will do this afternoon, and I have to be smiling and responsive to everyone.

That's the joy of being queen of the house!