Weekend Update

In American culture, visiting mothers-in-law get a bad rap.  Sitcom housewives frantically scrub and scour before their arrivals, desperate to avoid passive aggressive censure.  Sardonic greeting cards offer humor or empathy to victimized husbands and wives, alike.  And on the big screen, prospective mothers-in-law often try to buck the title before it is theirs, calling upon bottomless reserves of malice to terrorize their children’s fiancees.  For sensible young couples, it would seem, the only reasonable response to a mother on the move is to escape, fleeing her destructive force as one might the winds of a hurricane.

Pretty grim, right?

It certainly sounds that way, and I suppose that it really can be.  But after a weekend spent with my very own mother-in-law, I feel compelled to raise a couple of questions that complicate the damning American standard.

For instance, what if your fearsome in-law arrives bearing near-bursting bags of things like this?

With a kitchen full of homegrown blueberries, pattypans, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers, there’s little space left for tension.

Or, what if your mother-in-law’s visit gives you an excuse to play tourist in your own town, visiting places like these?

I could go on, but I don’t want to rub it in too much.  Suffice it to say that hosting my mother-in-law has given me plenty to blog about for the coming week!  I’ll have updates on pasta, pizza, cold drinks, and Charleston restaurants and attractions, all courtesy of Bryce’s mama.

Sure, she took me away from dinewithdanielle for the weekend.  But she gave me things to write about for even longer, so I think the trade was more than fair.  I hope you’ll agree!