This is pretty long, but I really REALLY need to get this off my chest!

The first time I met my boyfriend's parents was when he brought me to their house a couple months after we got together. I thought they were nice enough, but then as we were leaving his parents brought the camera out and started snapping pictures of us left and right. Okay, kind of weird much? Then, when we got in the car, waiting for it to warm up (it was the middle of winter), his mother comes running out, opens the back door and gets in saying "Oh are you waiting for me?!" I know she was just playing around, but to this day I still think that was a bit of a strange way to leave a first impression.

Fast forward a little bit. I had only met her one or twice at most at this point. I was working at a grocery store as a cashier, only a year out of high school, and she was breathing down my neck about how "I should go back to school and find a better job" and "you don't want to be working at Hannford forever". Okay, hello?! I've only met you twice AT MOST, and you have the nerve to try and tell me what to do with my life? Not only that, but I had only been working there a little over a year, it's not like I've been here "forever" already! Now I did leave that job to move to another state with him, and since then karma has come back around and bit me in the butt, and I haven't been able to find a job since. Now, since I haven't been working since October of 2008, she's STILL riding me about getting another job and going back to school. My own parents have given up trying to get me to go back to school. Even if I wanted to go back right now, the schools around me don't offer what I want to major in, I even told her that. To this day, I still haven't been around her too often; I'd guess I've only been around her seven or eight times since I've been with my boyfriend. I had the 'pleasure' of her and my boyfriend's father come for a visit twice last year (once over Memorial Day weekend and a couple weeks before Thanksgiving). Their first visit, she handed me a bunch of about colleges, lecturing me once again about getting another job (but wait, when I DID have a job, it wasn't 'good enough' for HER liking! Remember, in her opinion, "you don't want to be working there forever"!). Yet, on one of their last days there, we were waiting at a restaurant for a table when she was telling me how even college kids are "flipping burgers" because they can't find any 'decent' jobs. Wait, you're preaching how I should go back to school to "find a good job" then you turn around and tell me that even college kids aren't getting their dream jobs? They came to visit again before Thanksgiving, and it was the same . Even his father was like "Here this goes again!" when she started hounding me about going back to school and asking if I'm working yet. Really, she acts like I don't even try to look for a job when I've been struggling to since I moved in with him!

Now past all of that, she can't keep a secret to save her life. When I got pregnant a couple of years ago, we had to tell his parents last so his mother wouldn't tell my grandmother (Before knowing what she was really like I was dumb enough to leave my grandmother's number for her!) who would tell the rest of my family. When we did tell his mother, she told everyone in the neighborhood and everyone she worked with. When I miscarried, the SAME exact thing happened; this guy that Dan worked with, hardly knew and I didn't even know this guy, went up to Dan and apologized for what had happened. Dan didn't even know what he was talking about at first, he then told Dan that his mother had found out from Dan's mother that I miscarried. Why does he need to know? They hardly knew each other and I didn't even know this guy, so clearly we weren't best friends with him! Just because they worked together and their mothers worked together, I guess he just HAD to know what was going on in our lives. Not only that, but she tells everyone about that stupidest things. I was talking about a Greyhound bus trip I had taken, and how terrible that ride was because of rude passengers and how long it was. Next thing I know, his GRANDMOTHER, who lives in NORTH CAROLINA, was saying "I hope her next trip isn't as bad as the last one was" to Dan. Why does an 80+ year old woman who lives several states away, that I only met ONCE, need to know about a bad experience I had? Not a big deal, but really? You can't keep your mouth shut for anything, can you? I was also told when he was younger, his father caught him in a private act, told his mother, who then went and told the neighbors and his grandparents! REALLY?! I'm sure her co-workers heard about that one, as well!

He mentioned a wedding to her. First there was the idea that it was going to be in May on his best friend's birthday that died back in 2006, but when May came and went, we thought October might be better. There was nothing officially set in stone. She kept asking how the planning was going, and he always told her we hadn't even started, and it most likely won't happen. This went on for a few months, and nothing had changed; no planning, no one in my family knew about it, nothing. Well, a few weeks before our anniversary rolled around, knowing we had NOTHING planned and knowing my family doesn't like him or his family, she decided to fly in his grandparents and brother and his girlfriend for this wedding that wasn't there. When he told her it just wasn't going to happen, she went crazy saying it WAS going to happen, and with "everyone helping it will work" and how she spent a bunch of money flying four people in from two different states and a new bed set for his grandparents. We told her look, my family doesn't like him, you or anyone else in your family and they will NOT approve of a wedding, and my family thinks that I'm too young and still need to grow up a bit before I get married. She wouldn't have it. He was on the phone with her, and she was getting nasty b!tching about the money she had spent, how he told her "the date would NOT change this time" (which I had no knowledge of him saying that, maybe he did but I wasn't around if he did), and when we do decide to have a wedding, she might not show up because of this whole thing, and if I didn't tell my family about this then SHE would. She then hung up on him. I made him call her back, telling him to tell her it's none of her business to talk to my family, especially about something like this, and how it was only a few weeks away from "the date"! He tried in a very feeble attempt to tell me his parents' wedding was only planned in a few weeks and worked out fine, but I wouldn't have it. Not even a couple days later, guess what happened? My grandmother calls us up, leaving what sounded like an irritated voicemail telling us to call her back, because his mother had called her saying that we had "something to tell her". I couldn't believe it, I was so furious! He called his mother back, asking what exactly she had told my grandmother. She kept saying "I just called to INTRODUCE myself" and wouldn't tell him what exactly she said. Okay, let me tell you this, she had my grandmother's number for a few months and didn't even bother calling once, then all of a sudden she wasn't getting her way with a wedding that wasn't ever set in stone or even hers, and she just HAD to call my grandmother to "introduce herself". Oh and by the way, the two of them have something to tell you! So I called my grandmother back, telling her what had happened, and even asked my mother later on what she thought of us getting married and she said no, we were too young and honestly too immature. We tried telling his mother this several times, but she still wouldn't listen and still tried insisting that we get married. Needless to say, the wedding never happened, and she didn't talk about it after everyone had gone back home. We have three cats, one that we have to separate from the other two because he used to be a stray and he can be rather vicious and has FIV. Since we found him and took him in, she's been telling us to get rid of him, because for whatever reason we "don't need three cats". She didn't seem to care that he escaped over the summer, and seemed irritated that we got him back after a couple weeks. She keeps telling us to get rid of him. It's not her business how many pets we have, and she doesn't live with us so I don't know why she's so upset over it. She keeps sending me stupid cookbooks, which makes me feel like she's trying to hint at something. I'm absolutely terrified to drive; don't get me wrong, I did go to drivers ed. and had my permit for a little while. However, I almost caused a big accident on a very busy road and I haven't driven since, which means I don't have my license and frankly I don't want it right now. I'm not ready. She knows the story, but won't let that go, either. "Have you started driving yet? You need your license you can't depend on him driving you around forever!" She even got her effing neighbor to chime in on lecturing me about this, and I've only met the neighbor two or three times! I'm only going to be 22 in March, I'm still pretty young! I know I can't depend on him to drive me around everywhere forever, and I wasn't planning on it. I do plan on going back and re-learning everything, but I want to do it when I'm comfortable and not when SHE wants me to! I've tried telling him many, MANY times that she really gets under my skin and irritates the daylights out of me. All I get is "I know, but that's how she is and she's always been like this. She nags me too" and "She just wants us to be happy and have a good life". Oh, so we don't now? We have a roof over our heads, food in the fridge and a decent amount of money in the bank, how is that not good enough? I've been trying my butt off to find a job, but had no luck. College isn't really my thing right now, and I still have plenty of time to go back when I eventually change my mind; one of my aunts is 41 years old and she's going to college right now. As for my license, yeah I'm going to get it one day but right now ease the eff off my back and let me go for it when I'm ready! Uggghh I really can't stand her, she can't keep her mouth shut about ANYTHING and won't stop nagging me about everything! Honestly, how do I handle this? I'm >< close to just telling her off, because she really gets to me, but I don't want to upset my boyfriend either!