For many people, marriage is a lifelong relationship. It begins when a man and a woman decide to live together as husband and wife. Normally, there is a small ceremony during this time, where various friends and family members come to witness the beginning of the marriage. However, even without such a ceremony, when a couple decides to get married, they are recognized as husband and wife. It is shortly after marriage that many couples begin to face challenges such as how to deal with an overprotective mother-in-law. This happens when a mother of the married couple becomes overly protective of her ‘her child’.

For some parents, it is quite simple to let the children go off and have their own families when they are adults. However, for some people, it’s not that simple. Some parents refuse to admit that their children have grown up and married. They want to be around them to make sure their spouses treat them well.

Although both men and women can be overprotective of their married children, the case is more frequent in women. They are called mother-in-law. It does not matter if it is your son or daughter who is married; they always want to be protective. Sometimes they are protective for genuine reasons, while other times they are guided by selfish motives. However, there are a number of things you can do to ensure that you prevent those parents from wreaking havoc on your marriage, should you be married to their son or daughter. Below are some tips on how to deal with an overprotective mother-in-law.

1. Establish a foundation of trust between you and her. Give her reasons to trust you and believe that you are capable of taking good care of her son or daughter without being pressured to do so.

2. Establish channels of communication with her. In this way, you will learn why she is so protective. You are probably not the problem. Rather, she could be the problem and she’s just overreacting because she feels like you’re taking her son or daughter away from her.

3. Avoid being overly possessive of your spouse. In this way, the mother-in-law could abandon her militant attitude and stop being overprotective with her son or daughter.

4. Cultivate friendship with your mother-in-law. By doing so, he might stop seeing you as a threat and start seeing you as a friend.

5. Get people she trusts and respects to talk with her about how she feels about her attitude and overprotectiveness.

6. Don’t try to come between her and her spouse. Doing so would make her more protective, as she will feel that you are trying to steal your spouse’s affection.