PA
Ah, mother-in-laws. Try as they might, there is always SOMETHING they don't get quite right, isn't there? No matter how much we love, like and respect them, there will always be those little comments, the snidey looks, the heaps of cheap plastic tat they bestow upon our children... no wonder comedians in the 1970s could base entire careers on their shortcomings*...
And now, a new survey has shown that our partners' mothers really can be a huge problem.
Online parenting group, Netmums, polled 2000 mums and found that a whopping QUARTER of women think their relationship with their mother-in-law is the most stressful part of being a parent, whilst a third of them regularly argue with their partners about mum in laws meddling ways.
One in four mums branded the other woman in their partner's life as 'controlling', 'bitchy' and 'interfering'.
Respondents said their mum-in-laws always claimed to know best, judged them on their parenting skills and undermined them in front of their kids and partner.
Almost a third of the women surveyed said their mother in law made them feel they were not good enough for their partner.
And shockingly, some women admitted they had even moved house to escape the mother-in-law's clutches, and that their mother in law was directly responsible for their marital breakdown.
*"I took my mother-in-law to Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors and one of the attendants said: 'Keep her moving sir, we're stock-taking.'" - Les Dawson
Do you agree with these findings? Or are you blessed with a fab mother-in-law?