Dear Queenie,
My second husband, my daughter by my first husband, and I had to move in with my second husband’s mother for financial reasons. We are very grateful to her for her generosity, but I have a problem with the way she treats my daughter.
My mother-in-law does not agree with the way I am raising my daughter and she treats the child the angry way she treated her own children which I very much do not approve of. She even told my daughter that our financial problems were all my daughter’s fault. My husband tried to talk to his mother about this, but it didn’t do any good.
All this got my daughter so upset that I sent her to live with her father, my first husband. He’s a good father and takes good care of her, but I miss my daughter.
Queenie, why would she treat a small child that way?—Angry mother
Dear Mother,
Your mother-in-law may have resented your child for being a reminder of your first husband. Or she may simply be a bullying, abusive woman if, as you say, that is the way she treated her own children. Whatever the reason, you did the right thing to get your daughter away from her.
You and your husband should try to find a place of your own to live as soon as possible. Meanwhile, try to forgive your mother-in-law for her behaviour, although I know this may be very difficult, if not impossible.
