Dear Prudence,
I usually get along terrific with my mother-in-law, however, lately, she has been very overbearing. Anyway, we (MIL and I—husband was somewhere else) were in our vehicle driving to a special place for my kids, and our nephew (her grandson) was in the vehicle as well, she turned to me and said, “I hope (husband) is careful, you can’t afford to lose your meal ticket.” I turned to her and said, “Really??” She denied trying to be malicious, but I believe she was being mean.
She called me yesterday and told me that I need to call her friend and get her daughter’s number because the company she worked for is hiring. I tried to explain that I can’t do that, (I am handicapped and unable to work), but she just kept going on and on. I finally had enough and told her to just stop. I may have been a little forceful, but she doesn’t listen otherwise. She got mad and hung up on me. She became a widow a few years back and one of her kids does not speak to her at all, her other child rarely speaks to her, my husband is the only one who is there for her consistently. We try to call her daily to be sure she is OK, and we include her on most of our outings. We go to her house and do chores and things for her that she can’t do. I want to know how to handle this. I told my husband that he needs to talk to her about this, but he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings.