You Won’t Believe My Mother-In-Law, A Guide To the Milish Culture (Part 1) takes a humorous, pseudo-anthropological look at one of the oldest cultures on the planet: the mother-in-law culture, otherwise known as MILish. She is one of the world’s most widespread of naturally occurring phenomena, yet society has provided little explanation for her – until now. She lives deep within every woman. She starts growing within human females from the very beginning. First, she’s the little girl who’s dressing up dolls, treating the boys like she is smarter than they are and ordering Daddy around at her tea party. Fast forward to the teen years and it’s not dolls she’s dressing, it’s her boyfriend. Then she marries and has children and the real metamorphosis begins. Whether her children are four or forty they will always be HERS. What’s an in-law to do?

So here’s an opportunity to join co-authors and daughters-in-law Victoria Jancek Mechlin and Amanda Jancek Flaherty and indulge yourself in a fun-filled crash course in MILish. After all, it could happen to YOU one day or at the very least, to someone you know.

The evolution of the world’s oldest culture, the MILish culture, begins at the beginning. Once upon a time, there was a little girl from Anytown, Anywhere, Planet Earth.  And the little girl played with other little girls and liked it that way just fine. Then one day she discovered another strange species: boys. Now, everyone knows that girls mature faster than boys do.  So it came to pass that somewhere between the girl getting her first bra and her first time driving a car, she decided that she kinda likes these boys.  They are not the gross, stupid, rough, impossible creatures she initially thought they were.  She realized, of course, that there is so much more.  So the girl got herself a boyfriend.  They went steady.  They were together as much as possible.  This boyfriend she chose is not like the other boys who are just friends.  This boyfriend is hers.  And as she begins to gain confidence in her new relationship, she quickly learns more about herself and this newfound power that she holds. If she’s lucky, she is both Daddy’s little princess and Mommy’s younger co-conspirator in life.  As she grows older and begins to learn more about the rules of dating, what to do and what not to do, how to act and her general place in this world, inevitably she will begin to start to tell her boyfriend what is what. And there you have it: The earliest stages of her metamorphosis begin.

From high school to college and beyond, there are three kinds of relationships that develop between males and female: guys and girls who are “just friends”, guys and girls who date casually and move on to new partners, and guys and girls who mesh well together and eventually become a couple. Soon, the guy will begin to choose to spend much more of his time with the girl than with his best buddies -- after all, no matter how much he loves his buddies, it is SHE who holds the Keys to the Kingdom known as the Land of Sex.  In addition to this -- well, actually there is no other “in addition to this” that really matters, because after all is said and done, nature dictates that she will ALWAYS win, hands down. Eventually, the guy’s buddies and his family will notice a change in him.  Perhaps he has finally cut his hair because the girl hated it long.  Or maybe he’s developed a certain fondness for urban hip-hop music when he used to just listen to country.  Sometimes the change is subtle and will go unnoticed by everyone except his best friend and his own mother.  Other times, the change is more pronounced.  Perhaps he suddenly trades in his beat-up, old car and takes on two jobs in order to afford a sexy sportsmobile.  Reason: Her dad had one and she likes sports cars.  At this point, the poor guy is trying like hell to do everything he can to please her.  The Keys to the Kingdom are a powerful motivation, and as we all know, once a guy has gained entry into a Kingdom that feels great, he is willing to go pretty far to maintain his status as Master Caretaker. Meanwhile, once secured within a long-term relationship, the girl will begin to shed an old skin (metaphorically speaking) and start to show signs of what has the potential to evolve into her future MILish self. 

Victoria Jancek Mechlin- Mother, wife and daughter-in-law, V i c t o ria has also worked in public relations and journalism for over a decade.  Throughout her career V i c t o ria has acted as a media spokesperson and as media trainer for corporations, and nonprofit organizations. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Communications from American U n i v e r s i t y < /SPAN> in Washington, DC.

Amanda Jancek Flaherty- Prior to becoming a mother of two sons, Amanda worked in public policy and criminal justice for the state of C a l i f o r nia. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from California State U n i v e r s i t y < /SPAN> at Long B each, and is currently working on the completion of a Masters Degree in Public Policy. Amanda has  managed to juggle all of this successfully, while maintaining her status as a long-time MIL survivor.

Both sisters are keenly aware that they are in fact, MILS in training, thus they embrace their MILish cultural heritage throughout this book.