Comments on: lost weekend

By: Fabien

Fabien — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 18:00:50 +0000

The In Laws, misleadingly called belle mère and beau père in French […]

Actually, they’re not the ones supposed to be “beaux” according to the idiom: it’s just a shortening for “La mere de ma belle” (resp. “mon beau”) and “Le pere de ma belle”.

As for intrusive parents in law, I can only commiserate, I had similar experiences, without even needing to have a child…

By: daisy

daisy — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 13:05:07 +0000

Is there any way at all to avoid trouble with IL at all? My previous IL were nothing but trouble, specially MIL who tought that the little one hopping around was in fact her son and not mine. Having gotten rid of these IL and moved far far away, I thought that this time I would get it right with my new bf, by not getting married at all. So far it’s working, probably dues to the fact that IL are 3 hours away, and also that there’s no common kid. Now that i read your post, I start to wonder whether the problems will star if a newborn arrives… Does anyone know how to avoid those problems?

By: petite

petite — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 21:41:43 +0000

The Frog tells me it is ‘psychologie inversée’.

but he’s proved an unreliable dictionary in the past so I’d take that with a pinch of salt.

By: yayaempress

yayaempress — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 20:47:19 +0000

How do you say “reverse psychology” in French?

By: David

David — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 08:56:13 +0000

I always get the feeling that my in-laws feel a sense of obligation in the things they do for our kids - but not necessarily any joy or great pleasure in the experience. In fact, I often think they’re relieved when the visits are over. That’s just the way they are. Are they trying to give you some relief, thinking they’re doing you a favour? But anyway, whoever heard of an open, honest discussion about child-raising with the in-laws?