I hate my mum-in-law and she hates me, but it didn't always used to be like this. It all started when we met each other. You see, my husband and I met about 10 years ago in an online chat room when the World Wide Web and chatting rooms were all the rage. My dad, had bought a new iMac, the coolest computer at the time, and had signed up for a dial-up Internet connection. We were keeping up to our neighbours in our gated community in the middle of Florida. At the same time my husband Dylan, who lived in London, had also been given a iMac by his mum's boss. So in retrospect, I guess we would have never met if his mum hadn't brought home that computer for Dylan....scary.
Anyway, as I said we met in a chat room. It was totally random. He was chatting to another girl in the States about going to Florida for a family holiday in the coming Spring and he was asking her whether she knew what the weather was like over there at that time of the year. So I butted in and I replied "I'm in Florida!". And now 10 years later we're married, we live in England, have two kids, a mortgage and a goldfish.
I hardly had any contact with his family until we were engaged. Dylan and I met in person about 3 months after first meeting in that chat room. We really liked eachother at this stage. We had been on the phone to eachother every day and chatted online as much as we could, which was a bit tricky seeing as most of the time we had a five hour difference. Dylan often had to stay up really late at night. And I would wake up in the middle of the night to call him before he went off to work.
The first time we met was when he came to visit me at my parents' house as I still lived at home. I was only 19 years old and studying psychology at University. Dylan was 27 years old and had been working for the same Oil Company for about 11 years. I opened the door and I saw him for the first time; I really liked him! I found him attractive, phew! I knew he found me attractive because I had sent him a photo of myself before we met; "for men, love comes in through the eyes " and I din't want to waste my time or his if he didn't find me attractive. Lucky for me D had always been fascinated by Latin looking women with dark hair and dark eyes. I'm sure the fact that I had long hair, big boobs and a nice round bottom also helped.
My parents was a bit sceptic about the whole thing. For starters they thought he was too old for me (8 year age gap) and he was from a different culture (Me: Venezuelan/American, Him: Plain White British). At home Spanish is our first language, we ate mainly Latin American dishes, listened to Hispanic radio and to Latin music, my parents only watched Hispanic TV channnels, our friends and their friends were Hispanic, well you get the picture. And on top of all that my parents are devout Catholics and are really involved in many church activities and were aprehensive about me even thinking about dating anyone with a Jewish surname.
So from my parents' points of view, there were lots of obstacles from the beginning. But as soon as my parents met Dylan they really liked him and all their apprehensions melted away. He just wins people over immediately. He's shy but can converse really well. He's attentive, kind, and very funny. They could see his intentions towards me were honourable. Not at all like the Punk Jewish Liverpudlian Hooligan they expected to meet.
Long story shortened, we dated long-distance for a year and then got engaged. That's when I first came to England and my mum-in-law laid eyes on me. The look in her face will stay with me forever. That's the start of this 'wicked web'.
I believe that, unlike my parents reaction towards Dylan, whatever apprehensions Gale (Mum-in-Law) had of me never really melted away, and not for lack of trying. Gale is the sort of person that once she's labelled something or has made a decision upon something she will not change it, no matter what, even if it means losing something dear to her.