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Living with your parents after marriage…  It can be an issue for a married man in Japan especially for the eldest son and the only son.  And the issue between wife and mother-in-law has always been a popular family issue in Japan.  You can easily find cartoon and drama about this specific issue, calling daughter in law “oniyome” or wicked witch…

However, interestingly, it seems women’s attitude and way of thinking have been changed recently.  Could it be the end of our one of unpleasant tradition, wife/mother-in-law bullying?

According to a spokesman of a marriage agency, this change in women has been happening in the last 5 years.  We used to hear a lot of women, saying that they can never ever consider living with their mother-in-law or daughter-in-law!  But more and more people started having not hesitation to live with their mother or daughter-in-law anymore.

"isado" some rights reserved. flickr

On the other hand, a survey of a real estate agency shows that more people consider living close to their parents rather than living with them together after marriage, and only 10% of those answered the company’s questionnaire considers living with their parents.  This result does not really help prove that many women are willing to live with their mother-in-law for sure.  Then what can be the reason why there has been change in women’s attitude toward living with their mother-in-law?

Well, the article explains that women’s attitude was dramatically changed after the Riemann shock;  financial reason can be one of the cause.  For those women with work, living close to their parents can be a great help to raise children.  And also, you could probably rely on your parents financially to some extent if you live with them.

In addition to the financial reason, attitude of mother-in-law side seems to be contributing to the increase in women, who are more positive to live with their parents-in-law.  Some of mother-in law are very friendly to their daughter-in-law because of their very nasty experience with their own mother-in-law in the past.  And some of them simply don’t know anything about typical wife and mother-in-law issues due to a rise of nuclear family.  With those reasons, more mums are capable to have a friendly relationship with their daughter-in-law, keeping a reasonable distance from each other at the same time.

I see～!  It’s quite surprising that people’s way of thinking can be changed so easily in a short period of time.  But it wil be good if your parents and your partner can get along very well regardless of distance between where they live (o^-^o)

What do you think about today’s article?

Please let us know about the issues between wife and mother-in-law in your country, too.

 Source: web R25

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