With the importance of family, it can be hard when you don’t get along with the family that you married into. But whether the issue is from your side, their side, or both of you, there are things that you can do to help make almost any situation easier for you to cope with.

To help you learn how this can be done, here are three things to try if you don’t get along with your in-laws. 

Learn To Manage Your Expectations

Just as with any situation, one of the best things that you can do to help ensure that you’re not disappointed or left feeling like things aren’t the way you wanted them to be is by learning to manage your expectations when it comes to interactions with your in-laws. By doing this, you can hopefully reduce the number of times that you’re surprised by their actions and your reactions. 

While this might not be something that you necessarily want to do, as you may have had some pretty high expectations for how much you’d love your in-laws and enjoy spending time with everyone from your spouse’s nieces and nephews to their grandparents living in senior living communities, reeling in your expectations and not coming into each interaction expecting things to be different or better can help you meet things more realistically. 

Aim For Acceptance

There’s a big difference between accepting people and liking them. And when it comes to your in-laws, if you can’t find a way to like them or enjoy the time that you’re having to spend around them, the next best thing that you should aim for is acceptance. 

With acceptance, you’ll be coming to terms with the fact that your in-laws just are the way that they are. And since you can’t change anyone else but yourself, once you realize that you just need to accept your in-laws and change how you act based on them, things might become easier for you. 

Strive To Make An Effort

When you’ve had a lot of bad interactions with your in-laws, it can be easy to just give up and know that you’ll never have a happy relationship with them. But because you’re going to have to continue seeing these people as long as you are married to your spouse, it’s wise to try to make an effort in any way that you can. Even if this means trying to be more empathetic or not allowing things to bother you that otherwise would, this can help immensely in smoothing things over with your in-laws. 

If you’ve struggled with your in-laws in the past, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you find ways to make the best of a bad situation here.