How to Befriend Your Future Sister-In-Law

As stressful as dealing with in-laws sometimes is, meeting the in-laws opens up new possibilities for friendship and family relationships.

For instance, maybe you are a woman getting married who always wanted a sister. Now is your chance to gain a sister by way of marriage to your new husband.

The advantages of befriending your sister-in-law include the following:

—You may have someone to share the things in common that you would not be able to share with anyone else.

—This may be the chance for you to develop a bond with another woman that would be closer than just the casual acquaintance.

—You would have someone to spend time with when your husband and brother want to have a guy’s night out.

—If you and your sister-in-law, husband, and brother are close enough in age the four of you can enjoy couple’s outings together.

—Getting to know your sister-in-law will be one way to be “less scared” about spending the rest of the life with your husband and his family.

If you are wondering how you can make the relationship between you and your new sister-in-law keep in mind the following tips:

—Respect the fact that you and your sister-in-law are from two entirely worlds. In other words, she comes from a different family and may see things quite a bit differently than your family does.

—Remember that developing a relationship with your sister-in-law may not happen overnight. This is especially true if your husband and sister-in-law were very close.

She might in some ways feel threatened at first by your closeness with your husband, because she will miss the time she spent with him once you and your husband are married.

—Teat her with kindness and respect and try to find some common ground with her.

—Try to make some type of connection to her even before the wedding date. The more you know about your sister-in-law and/or the rest of your husband’s family before you get marriage the easier the transition will be afterwards.

—If you and your sister-in-law have differences, do your best to “choose your battles”. Likewise, a little compromise in this type of family relationship will take you a long way.

If you want to get to know your sister-in-law or other family member better it is recommended you plan some simple outings. Perhaps you can all go out for a drink, or you can host a low-key dinner party and/or game night.

Keeping it simple is better at first. Then, perhaps after you have gotten to know some of your in-laws better, you can all plan a weekend or week-long trip together. The guidelines mentioned in this article can be also applied in a similar way to new relationships developed between the husband and his future in-laws.

If you are looking for further tips on how to get along with in-laws, plenty of advice is available. You can read print and online publications that can be shipped to you within a few days.