In-Laws & Families
What do you call your in-laws, and why does nobody tell you
The first year involves addressing people you barely know in a role you have never occupied. Why the naming question is genuinely…
In-Laws & Families
Two families, two sets of expectations, and holding a boundary kindly.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
In-Laws & Families
The family group chat knows things about your marriage that you did not send
Extended family messaging groups are now where information about a couple travels. What tends to leak, why it causes trouble, and…
In-Laws & Families
Going home when home is a flight away
For couples living far from both families, visits are expensive, rationed and loaded with expectation. How to plan them so that…
In-Laws & Families
Keys, drop-ins and the front door as a boundary
Whether relatives can arrive unannounced is one of the most consequential household rules and one of the least discussed. What is…
In-Laws & Families
Two families, two gifting economies, one household budget
Wedding gifts, festival money and the obligations that come with them run on rules that differ sharply between families. How…
In-Laws & Families
When a parent needs care in the first years of a marriage
Caring for an ageing or ill parent arrives without notice and reorganises a young household. The practical decisions, the ones that…
In-Laws & Families
When one family did not want this marriage
Some couples begin married life with a family that opposed the match. What that costs in practice, what tends to change over time…
In-Laws & Families
Marrying someone who is already a parent
Joining a household that includes a partner's children is a different first year from most. What the role actually is, what it is…
In-Laws & Families
Everyone has advice for a newly married couple and most of it is autobiography
The first years attract an unusual volume of unsolicited guidance from relatives and colleagues. Where it comes from, which parts…