I don't know who wrote the other article, but the title sure sounds like the article is going to be better. The author could use some help with this one.

A mother in law can ruin a marriage and there is plenty of evidence for that. Having a mother in law that is constantly coming into your house will make you feel suffocated and stifled. If she has any type of influence on your life at all, then it will not be easy to get married as well as have kids due to her constant interference in your personal relationships with them. She'll start trying to tell you how they should be raised and how they should behave even though she's not their parent.

The domestic life of an American couple has undergone a change in recent years, with increasing levels of divorce and separation. Second marriages being more common and third marriages more likely, the number of households where there is some sort of tension between the two members has increased significantly.

This tension is sometimes referred to as 'the mother in law problem'. The term refers to emotional tension arising from the wife's (mother in law) entry into their marriage, often following a divorce. Often this presents itself most when a new mother is pregnant or gives birth to the couple's first child together.

The general belief is that the mother in law sees this as a threat to the marriage.

The mother in law problem outlined by social scientists is a difficult one. Some believe that it may arise from the inter-generational clashes between mothers-in-law and daughter-in laws; when both are displaying behaviors deemed unacceptable to each other (being dominant, dependent, overbearing, etc.). A recent study conducted by researchers at Duke University (USA) concluded that conflicts arise primarily because of what they termed "gender ideology" differences. In other words, daughters-in-law didn't like being told how to live their lives and mothers-in-law didn't like their way of thinking being challenged.

There are no easy solutions to the mother in law problem, though many social scientists believe that an active and cooperative role by both the mother in law and daughter-in-law can be helpful.

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