How do we get our daughter's in-laws to stop talking about their son's ex-girlfriend?

[maepie]

Last year, as we all were awaiting the birth of our first grandbaby, my daughter’s mother-in-law kept bringing up her son’s ex-girlfriend. I kept taking our conversation in other directions but she persisted in talking about the ex. The following day she continued until I finally so much as told her that I never mention my married son’s exes to my daughter-in-law or her mom. Now we are waiting to celebrate our grandbaby’s first birthday and both the mother- and father-in-law have been bringing up the ex again! This time my husband heard them and he wasn’t pleased about it either. How do we handle this, as we do not enjoy hearing about any of the women our wonderful son-in-law dated? He’s a great man and our whole family loves him. Help.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The only way to get long-term results will probably be to take aside your son-in-law and ask him to talk to his parents, explaining to them that their reminiscences about his ex are making his wife’s family uncomfortable. A wonderful son-in-law should be willing to stand up for his wife and her family to his own family. But if you don’t want to do that, then you’ll have to envision yourself as a broken record that keeps repeating, “We’d rather not talk about that, thank you. What do you think of Snookum’s latest milestone? Isn’t our grandbaby the best grandbaby in the world?”