Invitation Letter

“Now I have received a letter from her and I am reluctant to read it to the end.”

Who will want to spend time going through the ramblings of a pitiable woman? She recalls every incident that has turned out to be bad in her life, how her purposeful visit to the problematic place was instrumental in bringing everything to order; she believes that she has to persuade others to accept that she is wise far above what we have gained or will gain as wisdom in our life. She has come to pray to God, or rather she her divine soul has direct contact with God. So she says she is responding to God’s call by paying a visit although when told it is not necessary.

So she says, “You hapless daughter-in-law, give up now as the mother-in-law is right and you are wrong as usual.”

Try to understand that I need to be alone when I have to attend to every matter and I can’t appreciate your authority over my decisions.

All you women the mothers of our beloved husbands, understand that some of us can’t welcome visitors when we are burdened with responsibilities, and particularly can’t appreciate the overbearing attitude of the in-laws who hold the view that they can influence our wishes, making impossible things happen. That is the result of your unsolicited presence or just your apparent presence over and above our objections, trying to nullify our feelings and creating a divide between us and our loved ones if your ideas do not materialize.

Don’t you realize that entertaining guests means more work? I want my peace when I need it.

Nobody wants extra people around the house when life is hectic. So keep away. This is the daughter-in-law’s house and she is trying her best to make it her home. If we need your assistance, we’ll inform you.

Or we just want to create our own drive to get things done in a nice manner as it has been always and so we don’t require your help, unless we have asked for it. Don’t try to persuade us with surprising efforts from the family who do not fit in our regular activities or belong to our neighborhood.

Until then, we cannot consider your predicament. The air ticket which you have is valid for a year, so why not concede that your presence is not required at this particular moment and just check out?

We have to cope with our own feelings and get things done to restore normalcy and until then we don’t require your assistance. When everything is okay we’ll inform everyone but until then, you have to respect that this is our home and not a town hall.

Keep to your place and do not send us these missives detailing the privileges you deem to have but actually don’t have. This being our house it’s our choice as to who should be our guests and when should we have guests, and not a minute before. We will invite everyone as time and situation permits, but we can’t invite somebody because they think they have the right to visit us whenever they like for whatever reason, notwithstanding our predicaments.

I’m sorry for being so annoyed with you mother-in-law but I have to.

Your Dutiful Daughter-in-Law