Are In-Laws "In"?

My family recently multiplied.

J and I tied the knot few months back and we (the Kwoks) are now a family of 7. Of course, vice versa, the number of people I now can call family has risen from 5 to more than 20.

Sure enough, there has always been jokes about in-laws. Some put them in good light and most of them don’t.

Here are some to share.

• Adam and Eve were the happiest and luckiest couple in the world, because neither of them had in-laws.

• The doorbell rang this morning. When I opened the door, there was my father-in-law on the front step.

        He said, "Can I stay here for a few days?"

        I said, "Sure you can." And shut the door.

• A guy who has been told by his doctor that he has only 6 months to live decides to move in with his mother-in-law. According to him, living with her for 6 months will seem like forever.

• I was out shopping the other day when I saw six men beating my son-in-law up. As I stood there and watched, his neighbor, who knew me, said, "Well, aren't you going to help?" 

       I replied, "No. Six of them is enough".

Jokes aside, there are also the more sadistic stories of abuse between those of in-law relations. These stories are somehow more rampant in countries like India, Africa and the Middle East, where forced marriages and lack of access to justice occur. Nonetheless, they aren't non-existent in ours, no matter how ignorant we wish to be.

I myself have had personal contact with an elderly, who was often ill-treated by her daughter-in-law. It was not to the extent of abuse, but her living conditions could definitely have been better. Confining the old lady to a tiny room with no windows and discouraging her from roaming around the house just so that she would not "dirty" it, and changing all toilets in the house to squat ones instead of seated ones just because the daughter-in-law was "more used to it" were just some of the inconsiderate things that the poor old lady was subjected to. What amazed me was that her only son, the husband, never managed to do anything about it.

Sadly, the old lady is no longer around. Sometimes I still wonder if the daughter-in-law now lives in glee or plain remorse.

As for me, I have been very blessed to have great in-laws. Sure enough, the adapting continues:

• From a small family to a big one;
• From a soft-spoken environment to one that has people yelling from the ground floor to the fourth;
• From Cantonese tastes to Foo Chow buds;
• From a family that's all about fitness and sports to one that deems exercise as taking the staircase to our rooms; 
• And from the very planned and organised to the spontaneous. 

Different as they may be, I cannot ask for better. I know that there have been times when I rant a thing or two (I may be understating just a leeeeeeeetle bit) to my closer pals, about how doors are not knocked, how overfed we are, or how last minute things get, but at the end of the day, I appreciate very much the fact that my in-laws are made up of people with hearts that are golder than gold, and also those who have love for all around them (whether family or not) that's more genuine than the truth.

People always say, count your blessings, and I am certainly counting mine. Let me sign off with something cute that I got off the net, just for laughs.

Yup, blame it on the in-laws!