What do you call the parents of your son-in-law or daughter-in-law?

Hopefully, friends.

My kid’s inlaws. Or Brian’s inlaws. Or my daughter in law’s folks, or Mary’s folks. Or if you have grand kids, then you can say Jessica’s other grandparents, Molly and Tom.

I called my mother-in-law old battle ax. It fit her more than you will ever know.

@hawaii_jake & @Kardamom Thanks. They are friends by Facebook only so far, but Facebook is nagging me to complete my family tree, and the only classification their drop-down list offers is family friend. Perhaps there is’n’t a word for the relationship.

@john65pennington Ha! I’ve been quite fortunate in that respect. My Mother-in-law has passed away now, but she was a wonderful, courageous woman.

I don’t think there’s an official name for the relationship. My daughter’s been dating her current boyfriend for 3 years and I still haven’t met his parents yet.

I don’t think that there’s an official name like “aunt” for the sister of one of your parents. In the case of my BIL’s in-laws, I call them George and That-pain-in-the-ass-control-freak-that-I-can’t-take-another-holiday-with.

@downtide Don;t worry about it. My older son had kids that are grown now and working, and I have yet to meet his wife’s folks in person. I know them through correspondence and seeing their pictures on Facebook. They seem to be very fine people, and my son’s been happily married now for going on 26 years.

@tedibear I believe you are right. That’s why the Family Tree app in Facebook has no selection for it in their drop down. They even have 3rd cousin available—and I get a brain freeze even trying to figure out who my third cousins are.

In Chinese—we call it 襯家 [in Cantonese, chun-ga], which literally means “the family the matches ours.”
I’ve also heard my maternal grandmother call my paternal grandmother ”家婆” [lit. “the grandmother/matriarch of the family”; but I’m not sure if it’s specific to one’s son’s in laws. (As opposed to your daughter’s in-laws)

The Chinese are very precise about family hierarchy, which is reflected in our language.

@lifeflame Great answer. Thanks so much for that glimpse into your culture. I do know that family is very important in China. But I hadn’t considered how that might be reflected in the richness of the country’s language.

@ETpro
oh, we are obsessed. for example, I think there are eight different variations for “uncle” depending on whether it is:
your mother’s elder/younger brother; or
your mother’s elder/younger sister’s husband; or

your father’s elder/younger brother; or
your father’s elder/younger sister’s husband.

But it is nice to be able to know precisely who you mean. It’s particularly useful when it comes to knowing which grandparent; and if the sibling is elder or younger.

@lifeflame Amazing. It must take ages to learn what to call all your various family members, and what that appellation means.

@ETpro
Not longer, than I suppose, than to learn each individual name “e.g. Uncle Jimmy”
We also have rituals that help reinforce this. For example, when I was small, we had to greet every family member with our version of ‘bon appetite’ before eating, in order of the family hierarchy…

brother & sister (in law) Family.
Deal with it.

@SeaTurtle No can do. Facebook has no such categories.

@ETpro @lifeflame It gets even more confusing when you consider that everyone in the family will have different titles depending on who is addressing them.

I might call an uncle “3rd brother of my father” while my cousin might call him “3rd brother of my mother”.

@chocolatechip I suppose if you learn that from infancy forward, it’s second nature to you in adulthood. But I would imagine that someone not familiar with the language and trying to learn it as an adult would find that a particularly daunting part of mastering the language.

In Vietnamese, we call them “Ong Ba sui”.