Living with In-laws...

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Do you live with your in-laws? Does your in-laws live with you? Do you get along well or has it been a nightmare? __________________________________________________ When my husband and I attended a premarriage seminar before tying the knot, we were asked if the idea of living with the in-laws or having them live with us was okay. We both said no. Years later, we are neither living with in-laws or have them staying with us, but I have a brother-in-law who likes to spend his weekends over at our home. At first, it was okay. I looked at it as a nice way for my husband and brother-in-law to bond again as well as my brother-in-law to get closer to my kids. As time went by and his weekend over seemed to be becoming a routine for him, I started becoming uncomfortable with the whole set-up. I usually buy groceries once a week. Groceries just enough to make ends meet. With an extra mouth to feed, I have to try to squeeze him into our budget. Having an extra person as well at home means more mouths to feed, more electricity consumption (he likes to bring his laptop over and keep the laptop on all day), more water consumption, more plates to clean up (argh! I hate it when I keep finding an unwashed glass on the kitchen sink! Like how hard can it be to wash a single glass after using it rather than waiting for me to do it?), extra mess to clean up (sometimes even a little receipt that can be thrown directly into the garbage bin just has to be left on the table...GRRrr!). I used to look forward to weekends because it would be the time my family gets to spend more time with each other. It's the time when my husband gets to spend more time with the kids and myself. Nowadays, with brother-in-law around, his attention is being divided. Our weekends would be spent by going to the mall, eating breakfast, lunch and even sometimes dinner out... with brother-in-law with us. I know a brother-in-law is supposed to be considered family as well, but I'd rather really be spending it with "just family"... you know what I mean. Greedy me! :D It's different when it's just us. At least talks would be more of family than of the latest cars out or car stuff, etc. Talks would be of the kids and anything that had to do with the family. I guess my brother-in-law just feels so at home with us. So at home to the point that last night, my husband came home without our car because my brother-in-law borrowed it because he had a date. This is not the only time that he has borrowed the car. It's supposed to be a family car... our car. I can't wait for him to get his own. Actually, he has convinced my husband to make a car loan at his company just so he could borrow the money to buy himself a car. He'll be paying my husband instead. I think my husband is being way too accommodating to his brother. I think sometimes he forgets that he already has a family of his own to look after. Anyway, my stand on this is that living with the in-laws is not really a good idea. I have looked at it this way even before I had in-laws and still look at it in the same way.