Dear NEB Readers: My Mother-In-Law Is A Terror

Dear NEB Readers,

    My marriage is just three months old. My father-in-law is a very good man, the kind of father I prayed for.      I lost my father last year and he has become a fine replacement for him.

Since marrying his son, he has been there for me, telling me things he knows will help me live a wonderful life with my husband. Through him, I got to know what kind of things to avoid and what to hold tightly to.

He even went as far to teach me how to make his son’s favorite food which incidentally is also his. He said his mother used to cook it for him and that my husband fell in love with the food too when he went to live with her.

His wife, my stepmother-in-law is also an angel. Unless one is told she isn’t the biological mother of my husband, you won’t know from the way she dots on my husband and his elder brother. Her daughters and son accord their elder brothers every respect they deserve.

On the other hand, my mother-in-law is a terror. She is divorced from my father-in-law. I learnt she didn’t also last long in her second marriage. She is in her third marriage.

For some strange reasons, she and I didn’t get off on a good start. But being the younger woman, I have tried my best to be civil and to avoid getting into her wrong side.

But with her latest decision and desire, there is no way I can avoid it. About three weeks ago, she packed into my house without notifying me or her son.

I came back from work to meet her fully installed in my guest room. She even had my sister staying with us made a different kind of meal for her, different from the one I instructed them to make.

As if that wasn’t enough, she brought some clothes including her underwears she wanted my sister to wash. Out of respect, she did but left out the pants.

When I came back home, my sister was very angry and indicated her interest to go if she was staying. I waited for my husband to come back home before saying anything. He too didn’t like the idea of his mother coming and tried to persuade her to go back to her husband’s house.

Rather than face her son, she started raining curses on me and members of my family. There was nothing she didn’t say, including manipulating her son to favor his father instead of her; my husband and I bought a car for the father during his birthday.

She told everyone who cared to listen that I will not enjoy peace in her son’s home. Its been hell for me. My husband has been begging me but every day she spends in our home is hell. My father-in-law and his wife are currently in Ghana; I don’t know if I should call him to report the development in my home.

Every night, I hear her cursing any woman who will not allow her enjoy her son. What do I do? I am not cut out for her kind of person. Please help me because I am getting fed up and won’t mind leaving her son for my peace of mind.

I haven’t told my mother because she is yet to recover from my father’s death which affected her badly due to their closeness. Telling her what I am going through might kill her.

My-mother-in-law-is-a-terror, please help me.

“Tobacco Smoking Leads To Low Spêrm Count, Weak Erêction”

Dr Joseph Natsah of General Hospital Kachia in Kaduna State, has advised youths against tobacco smoking, saying it leads to impotence.


Natsah said in an interview on Tuesday in Kaduna that tobacco smoking results in low spêrm count, weak erêction and impotence.He warned girls involved in smoking to desist from the habit as it would also prevent them from either conceiving or having still birth.

Natsah said tobacco smoke generally has adverse effect on every organ of the body, including the immune system.

The medical practitioner listed some of the conditions generated by smoking to include coronary and heart disease,  as well as breathlessness and influenza,He also said that smoking causes cancer, such as leukaemia, cancer of the bladder, throat and stomach.

Also, a laboratory technician, Miss Mercy Onu said smoking was contributing to higher percentage of deformed spêrms and impotency.She also said it contributed to “painful ulcers along the digestive tract and build up fatty deposit on the artery walls”, thereby leading to low blood flow and heart attack.

A police sergeant, Dalhatu Konkiyel, who said he was a “retired chronic smoker”, said that he experienced various health challenges while smoking.Some of the challenges, he said, were poor vision, high blood pressure, common cold , tooth decay, gum disease, sleeping and blood circulation problems.

He advised the youths not to indulge in the habit, to avoid early death and psychological trauma. Konkiyel called on the Federal Government to ban the manufacture, distribution, sale and smoking of tobacco in the country.