This is more of a venting session than anything because I know what I have to do in this situation. After much deliberation, we landed on a date for my shower. It was really difficult to find a date that worked for me and the hostesses. When I told my MIL the date, she said she has a friend in town that weekend and wanted to know if she could bring her friend - otherwise, she wouldn't be able to attend. Now, it doesn't seem like the biggest deal except for the fact that she's done this every time we've had a major event. She got mad that we wouldn't invite her friends to our wedding. We had very limited space at our venue and wanted to make sure we had room for OUR friends (we paid for our wedding, btw). THEN, she tried invite 10 people to my bridal shower - four of whom were her friends who weren't invited to the wedding. She got offended when I told her that we were trying to keep the bridal shower small. My bridesmaids were paying for it, and none of them had a lot of money. So the fact that, yet again, she wants to bring someone along to my baby shower just makes me want to scream. I understand the circumstances are different this time... Her friend already booked a plane ticket. But I just wanted to have ONE event where it didn't become about my MIL and her friends. We are trying to change the date, but of course I'll have to let her bring her friend if we can't settle on another date. That would be cruel to say no, resulting in her not being able to attend. It just frustrates me. I was looking forward to a small intimate shower with just my closet girl friends and family members. In a very private person, and very introverted. When I'm around people I don't know, I feel like I have to be "on" and it exhausts me. Argh!