Dear Cary,
I'm in a great relationship with a good man. We have been together for a year now and he is good to me, he treats me with so much respect, and he's kind to everyone he meets and knows. I've never had a better relationship than now. He is a hard worker and has a great job. Never been married or has any children. So that eliminates a lot of drama in our lives. We have the greatest sex life ever! But ... he's a mama's boy!
It's just the two of them. The brother died a few years ago and the father has been out of the picture for many years. These two act like they are in love with each other. It's not your typical mother-son relationship. She is absolutely possessed with him. She's made the comment to me that whatever is hers, is his. And whatever is his, is hers. And that has included this relationship.
When I met him I lived alone with my two children in a rented house. He began to spend the night, then it turned out to be every night, until he eventually moved in. Things were perfect and life was just great, until about six months ago, when the homeowners sold the house that I was renting. I had to move and it was a great opportunity to move into a place together and split the bills and rent with him.
The weekend of moving into our new house, his mother decides she isn't happy with her relationship with her boyfriend whom she has been living with for the past two years. So of course the loving man I have invites her to come and stay with us. He lets me know his mother will be staying with us. And I was fine with it, thinking it would only be for a few weeks. Well, those few weeks have turned into the past six months of hell!!
At first she was very helpful. She was out of work because she became sick and was too weak to work. That was the main reason I was OK with her staying with us. She would clean the house every day and have dinner ready when we came home from work and school. We never asked her for any money for rent or bills. She was receiving Social Security at the time and we told her to just save her money and get into her own place.
Now, six months later, she is back to work and has absolutely no intention of moving out. The house cleaning and dinner came to an end. She has even loaned all of her furniture to friends so that she won't have to pay storage fees each month. She sleeps on my couches and stores her clothing in boxes in a closet. And she has not contributed one dime to the rent, bills, or food for our home. She has never bought a roll of toilet paper, a bottle of shampoo, or a box of laundry detergent. But she does manage to wipe her ass, wash her hair and body, and wash her clothes.
She's even become so comfortable that she wants to spend more time with us in the bedroom. She comes in and lies on our bed and watches TV with us and smokes her cigs in my room. When I tell him how much it takes my privacy from me, he thinks I'm just bitching and having a bad day and want to take it out on her.
Anytime I bring the subject up to him he gets his feelings hurt, defends his mother, and tells me not to talk about his mama like that. I ask him how can she not have any shame. And it causes problems between us.
I'm not a cold person, but people like her don't even want to help themselves, so why should I? I won't kick her out before Christmas, but how do I make her leave without hurting his feelings and keep the flame between us going?
I realize she will always be in our lives. I'm not asking him to choose between me and his mommy. I'm just asking to live in my own home without her always being right there taking care of him. What it has come down to is that she can't have him all to herself, so she sure the hell isn't going to let me have him to myself.
How do I get rid of the in-law without being an outlaw?
In love with a mama's boy
Dear Reluctant Daughter-in-law,
I think you have to throw them both out. But let's explore the option of just getting her to leave. First, you would have to speak to her directly. You could not ask your boyfriend to do it. You would have to sit her down and evict her. And no explanation could possibly make it seem just in her eyes. Any explanation you give her would only give her a basis for a counter-argument. If you say it's for financial reasons, she'll offer to contribute money. If you say it's because she doesn't do housework, she'll promise to do housework. If you say she's interfering with your relationship with her son, she'll promise not to interfere. And then where are you? Then the burden is on you to prove the truth of your accusations. So I don't think reasoning with her or giving her a long explanation is the way to go. I think you just have to throw her out.
But if you just throw her out, you place your boyfriend in an untenable position. He's already demonstrated that he has an emotional blind spot when it comes to his mother. He can't hear criticism of her. He has no judgment in this matter. So if you throw her out, he will see you as the villain who threw his mother out. I think it will destroy any happiness you might have in living with him.
So, strange as it sounds, I think to save your relationship with him, and his relationship with his mother, you have to throw them both out. If he lives separately from you, he can still be your boyfriend and salvage some pride in telling himself he's simply being mistreated by his woman. He can tell himself that you're a hard, hard woman, but since he's taking the hit, he needn't feel like he's being a bad son; in fact, it gives him the opportunity to do what he not so secretly wishes to do anyway: to live with his mother and take care of her.
I have a feeling, however, that evicting them might put you in a tough spot financially. Your house probably had lower rent; it would have been reasonable to trade up when you knew your boyfriend would be helping out. So now you may not be able to afford the rent on your new place all by yourself. That is a sticking point. But if you relied on your boyfriend's income in renting your new place, and he has now broken your tacit rental agreement by inviting his mother in, I don't think it would be out of line to expect him, who has a great job, to at least help you financially, with first and last months' rent, or a little monthly assistance for a few months, so you can find a place you can afford by yourself.
It's much easier for a man to live with the burden of supporting two women than it is for him to live with the guilt of having abandoned his mother. It's not like the choices are pretty, but I think you have a better chance of keeping him as a boyfriend if you throw the two of them out.
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Want more advice from Cary? Read yesterday's column.
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