Big Family Love

Not only do I think my family is pretty great but I am also extremely lucky to have been blessed with amazing in-laws who accepted me as part of the family from the first time they met me over four years ago.  Hubby’s family is actually quite big… both his parents are remarried and have amazing significant others, he has two brothers that are both married (to lovely women) and each have two kids, plus he has two stepsisters, one of which is married and has two little girls and the other one, K, has become one of my best friends.  I haven't even touched on the grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends!  And I love them all.

I am having a slight issue, no issue isn’t the right word… I don’t actually know what the right word is so I will just try to explain it… my mother-in-law (MIL) would like me to call her Mom and my father-in-law (FIL) would like me to call him Dad.  I need to clarify up front that I love them both and I actually feel (major cheesy moment coming, sorry!) honoured that WANT me to call them Mom and Dad.  My two sisters-in-law (SILs) both call them Mom and Dad but they have actually been around for about 18-20 years (my BILs both met these amazing women very young, have awesome relationships and I so hope that hubby and I are as lucky as them).  So again, I don’t not want to, I don’t mind it, but it feels kind of weird.

My FIL left me a message a couple days ago and had no problem saying, “Hi it’s Dad, give me call…” and my MIL left a similar message (and reminded me that my outgoing message still has my maiden name!) and I love that they think of me like that.  So why is it weird for me?  Does anyone else have that problem?  It feels awkward when I say it, but I’m not sure if they can tell.

I asked my sister about it because I have only ever heard her call her in-laws by their first names and she said she never would and in fact, couldn’t.

I guess it just takes time… and really, wouldn’t the problem be if they didn’t like me?  Trust me to complain about the opposite!

Like I told hubby yesterday: it’s better to a big family with too much lots of love than to have none at all.

Sxxo.