Can you help me think of an alternative to "in-laws" to refer to my wife's parents?

I call my in-laws mom and dad…

“My partner’s parents” seems kinda cold. What about “my extended family”?

I’m confused, if you had a ceremony how are you not married? What other ceremony is there that makes her your wife but her parents not your in-laws?

Outlaws?

I need a term for when I am referring to them.
I am not legally married; I am not allowed.

@Judi lol4rl For Andrew

How close are you to them? are they totally accepting of you? That would make a difference about how endearing the term would be.

How about My old lady’s ma and pa? :-)

I am closer to them than my own family. They are completely accepting of me.

What about their first names?

or what about “______________’s parents.”

Then I would just claim them, Mom and Dad.

What’s wrong with just saying “my wife’s parents”?

as in “Gee, sorry I can’t help you move, we’re going to dinner with my wife’s parents.”

If you want a term from another culture, suegros is the word for in-laws in Spanish.

I need a term for what would be a situation like chica described: “Gee, sorry I can’t help you move, we’re going to dinner with my wife’s parents.”

Does suegros refer to the law somehow?

I’ve been married 28 years (legally) and have never referred to my in-laws as such; I’ve always refrerred to them as __’s parents. Using a term from another culture would just beg explanation. It’s like husbands referring to their spouse as “the wife”, as if the person didn’t have a name.

In the age of people having multiple sets of parents, relationships are too complicated to label.

Or you could just say, I have a family dinner, family commitment, family obligation.

we’re visiting family.

family is coming over.

we’re doing family stuff.

But I want a kinship term. Why must I be denied? <Whine>

Tiny, suegros isn’t related to any word for law as far as I know, and the definition (translated) is just “the parents of one’s spouse”. :)

See. Why can’t there be an equivalent English term? <Whine.>

kwitcherbitchin

You want a “Leave It to Beaver” term for a relationship dynamic that would have June and Ward flummoxed.

@tiny: Would you settle for Yiddish? There are two lovely words:

mishpocheh
“Or mishpokhe or mishpucha. It means “family,” as in “Relax, you’re mishpocheh. I’ll sell it to you at wholesale.”

Machatunim

“There is no one English word to match all the obligations and anxieties due to your machatunim (pronounced maa cha TUH nim- the “ch” is a gutteral sound as in “J.S. BaCH”). While the English “in-law” relates a person to the relatives of his or her spouse, the Yiddish “machatunim” is a Yiddish word relating someone to the relatives of the spouse, or even potential spouse, or his or her offspring. For instance:

A—- B C—- D
| |
| |
E————-F

If E and F are married, or, more pressingly, are considering getting married, then A and B are the machatunim of C and D, and C and D are the machatunim of A and B. “Machatunim” is a plural noun. The singular male noun is “machatin” and the singular female noun is “machateynes”. It’s a loaded word, and tends to imply people who you’ve got to somehow impress. Usage: “Get out the good china, the machatunim are coming to dinner!”

Those others.

@gail Awesome. ;) Lurve for the daigram.

My husband calls my mom “Mrs. Jonsblond’s mom” after 17 years of marriage. She loves it! Just say ” this is _____’s parents, Mr. & Mrs. ______.”

I mostly don’t use the term in-laws either. I just say ‘husband’s parents’.

Tiny: Thanks but diagram is from the sources in red.

Yes, but you posted it.

“My wife’s parents.”

That’s only one syllable longer than “my in-laws” and perfectly unambiguous.

My SIL refers to my parents (the parents of her husband) as “the ‘rents.” Her parents were never married to each other (yet another long story) so they are referred to as Mama and him.

there is “sympetheroi” in Greek which means the same as “machatunim” that gailcalled mentions above. Though it includes the whole other side of the family usually (and I bet it’s the same in Yiddish). ie not just your child’s in-laws, but also their children and siblings and that old spinster aunt that will come to the wedding and drool all over the cake.

from your pov they’d be called “petherika” but I don’t like that word. Or the spanish equivalent for that matter.

“my wife’s parents” is the best choice I think.

How about “the people who would be my in-laws if it weren’t for prop 8”?

Ah…. I’m an idiot. Sorry for that, tiny. I assumed it was a man/ woman issue. I don’t think you need an alternate term (unless you don’t want to call them mom and dad, or so and so’s mom and dad). Family is family, just call it what it is.

i think the foreign terms are great, but if you use them, most likely the person is going to say “what?” and then you’ll have to explain what you’re talking about.

What Harp said, absolutely, except at times when you’re trying to soft-pedal your politics for some politic reason.
Lurve for all the whining. Deeply justified.

or of course you could just call them “old pervert” and “fat bitch” like I do with mine ;)

Thank you susan. I believe my whining is justified.

I actually say ”<husband’s name>‘s parents” unless I mean his whole family, all of whom would be in-laws but whom I usually just refer to as ”<husband’s name>‘s family.”

I like Outlaws myself