I was brought up in a traditional Chinese family. As you might not be aware of, back in the older days (up till my parents’ era), it is so not uncommon to hear about conflicts or disharmony between the daughter-in-law and her spouse’s family, especially with her husband’s mother. I’ve heard a lot of this kind of thing; it almost happens in all family, depending to a larger or lesser degree. I have even seen first hand news from my own family, between my mom and my dad’s family; between my maternal uncle’s wife and my maternal grandmother, the unclose ness of all my aunties (paternal uncle’s wives) with the family of my dad’s side, paternal aunties with their spouse’s families.

I used to hear about my mom’s complaints about my dad’s side of family. Well, I agree with her because I literally understand the actual cause of the problem. But since I’ve grown up, I began to wonder if things would have turned better if my mom could have put a bit more effort in communicating with my dad’s family. I don’t mean to sucking up to them, this is so pretentious. I just think maybe the conflict could be lesser if something could be done from my mom’s side. Well, probably it is really not that easy if I were in her shoes. Nevertheless, not to be paranoid, I have seen some families without this family conflict.

I like to keep things as simple as they can. I like to be myself and bring my heart to communicate and interact with everyone, especially people whom I really care and like. This also includes my husband’s family (that is if I would get married some day). Maybe his family is not easy to deal with. But I still think I would be grateful to his parents, especially his mother for bringing him up and educating him to become such a nice guy. Now I assume my future husband should be a really nice guy, if not I would not want to spend the rest of my life with him. I would certainly want to get to know more about his siblings (if he has any) because they are the ones he grown up with and have fun with too. I know there is a strong bonding between siblings speaking from my own experience.

I used to think a relationship only involves two individuals. Well, in a way, I still think this is a valid statement. However, now I begin to realize that the relationship actually means so much more if the couple receives supports and blessings from both sides of the families. : )