Your crazy in laws-prompt 1-9/22/2011

Almost every one has seen Everybody Loves Ramond.  You know the mother Marie on that show my ex-Grandmother-in-law is the insperation behind that woman.  Marie is known for being overbearing and sometimes downright nasty to her daughter-in-law, Raymonds wife.  If you times Marie by 10 you will get the picture of the lovely ex-Grandmother, in fact they even look somewhat alike.

Back in 2007 my now ex-Husband and I moved into his grandparents house in Baltimore which was across the country from my parents so that he could attend school there.  We had only been married a month and money was tight so rather than get an apartment for the 15 months we were going to be there they extended the offer that we (my husband and myself and my 6 month old son) move in with them, I regretted that decision from the first month untill I moved out 7 months later.  I have to admit that I was having a hard time adjusting to being so far from my support system and being in a part of the country I had never been to before.  Having never lived a big city before didn't realize how much more expensive it was going to be.  The two of us in school and only myself working full time, feeling like I was taking care of two kids instead of married with one, and being the only one willing to clean this gigantic house that seems to have never been cleaned in all the 15 + years that it had lived in I think I had a right to feel overwheelmed. 

I don't know what I did to get on her bad side but it seems I had acheived that in the first two weeks.  Maybe it was the fact that I scrubbed all of her linoleum/tile floors on my hands and knees on the first day and vaccummed and dusted everything on the second and third day, but it seemed that for some reason this women did not like how I was rasing my child or dressed or treated her grandson.  The first week I was informed that at 6 months my child should no longer be napping and the only thing he could be fed was baked potato mashed with a little butter mixed for flavor, he still will not eat potatoes to this day.  A week later I was then asked if his father, who was not my husband, was a heavy man.  When I told her no she said oh then you must be why this child is so fat.  Umm...isn't that the pot calling the kettle black, I had a baby not to long ago what is your excuse is what I wanted to say, but I didn't instead I smiled and took my son back from evil woman as I had now decided to refer to her in my mind and took my son for a nice long walk to cool off before doing or saying something equally nasty.  By the end of the month she had made my life so miserable that I cried myself to sleep and I was calling my mother more and more frequent which was a change since we didn't have that close of a relationship.  At the end of the first month ex-grandmother-in-law or evil woman if you will would tell me every other hour when I was home that there was no shame in getting a divorce (even though we had been married for two months) and returning home.  I wanted to tell her that it wasn't him making me so miserable it was her.

In the end it was a battle over everything.  We had bought prepaid phones so we wouldn't pay extra by going over on minutes and we would only call each other but that wasn't good enough for her precious gandson and she promptly bought him a cell phone, but sneered over the fact that I needed one though I prefered to use the prepaid one that we paid for because if I used his I was a money grubbing witch who was taking her grandson's money, even though he didn't work I did.  She didn't see a need for both of us to have one since he was going to school in a classroom and I was just going to school online.  This is just a gloss over most of what was going on, but I think the picture has come accross.  After 7 months total I realized that I was unhappy both in my marriage and living in a place where no matter what I did I was criticized.  I returned to the area where my family is, took a great summer job which helped me get into the position with benefits I am in now, and after trying the distance making the heart grow fonder I ended up divorced after, and this is really bad I know, only 1 year.  It was a learning experience. It taught me never ever move in with someone who swears they are trying to "help you out", don't rush into something that seems to good to be true because the chance of it being to good is about right, and finally only you can make yourself happy and only you have the power to change it, if you get the opportunity to make it better take it before its gone.