Dealing with in-laws is tricky business most of the times.

Ideally, your mother-in-law should be the person with whom you can laugh about how your husband loves to sleep long hours.

But if you learn to get past fake family togetherness, formality and innuendo, you could actually have your in-laws on your side.

Say No to Stereotypes

Leave that script behind at your parent's house! In-laws demons, me victim.

You go in with presumed apprehension and they become defensive from day one.

True, your mother-in-law can churn a million emotions in you. To pattern a relationship on conditioning is to axe it from the beginning.

First, make an effort to observe and understand her and then learn to deal with it. Don't let hostility be your coping tactic.

Your In-Laws Are Scared Too!

Even while a son's wedding is one of the happiest moments in any parents' life, this is also the time when they realise, with a certain sense of gloom, that their son is now someone else's. There is another woman in his life who is obviously going to be the centre of his attention.

Naturally, your in-laws have mixed emotions about you. You have usurped their place in their son's life, in some way.

Psychologists say that the unspoken emotions around the marriage of a child can make parents very vulnerable and hence on the defensive, even without provocation. This is perhaps the reason why many mothers-in-law don't allow their daughters-in-law inside the kitchen for a long time!

Speak to your parents-in-law about their fears, tell them that you are a part of their family and not there to take their son away. Trust takes time but it won't come automatically, you have to bridge the distance yourself.