Advice request: How to do with stupid relatives?

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

I would that it were that simple. Wife hates disapproval of her parents, and her mom expects her as the rational child to do what is necessary to appease.

Completely unreasonable and the wife is certainly not at lack of fault because she has difficulty dealing with that.

Well, if she wants to continue engaging in the crazymaking, then there's not much you can do about it other than keep the responsibility for her participation firmly in her realm. It's always difficult when someone is trying to live up the expectations of others (especially a parent) when those expectations are not entirely reasonable. Your wife may eventually come to the realization (and acceptance) that she doesn't need to jump in and do everything her Mom expects her to do.