We're all so politically correct these days that there's almost no one we can rag on without getting dirty looks. Even blondes are getting sensitive. Thank goodness for in-laws. At least they're still fair game!

SIENNA: When I was pregnant with my second child, my mother-in-law called me fat every time she saw me. She made me so self-conscious that I asked my OB-GYN about my weight gain. He seemed surprised by my question and said my weight gain was fine and not to restrict my intake because that would decrease the birth weight of the baby.

I told her all that, but she persisted in calling me fat. I went home and told my husband that I'd had it. He told his mother to knock it off. That did it. I heard no more about being fat.

P.S. Two months after giving birth, I was back to my pre-baby weight.

LIONEL: My mother-in-law extorted $100,000 from us when we sold our house a couple years back. Her name was on the title as a formality. My wife and I paid the mortgage, taxes, utilities, repairs, landscaping and insurance. She has a long history of violence and revisionist history, feuding with her sisters and general sociopathic behavior. Since we stopped speaking to the old cow, my wife has never been happier.

IRIS: My husband had an older brother who was very well-to-do. Because of that, their parents favored him over my husband. They catered to his every whim. When I got married, my mother-in-law told me to always remember which brother I was marrying and not to expect too much!

ROSE: My sister-in-law told me shortly after I got married that the only thing of value that I brought to the family was my ability to bake cookies. Even though her husband, my husband's brother, was our son's godfather, she never showed up for the ceremony. She was playing tennis.

When my brother-in-law got sick, she put him in a nursing home so she wouldn't be bothered. My husband passed away a year before his brother, and I had trouble finding him because she kept moving him from place to place.

When he passed away, I heard about it from my neighbor who saw the notice in the local paper. I went to the service because after all he was my husband's brother and our son's godfather. I was not asked to sit with the family. I sat on the other side or the church.

I stood in line after the services to offer my sympathies, but I didn't speak to my sister-in-law, nor did she speak to me. To this day I haven't spoken to her, and I think it's just as well.

KAREN: At 21 I was newly married. I had long hair that I wore in a flip, the style-du-jour in 1967. About six months after the wedding I cut my hair. My mother-in-law told me I looked "100 percent better." To this day, I still don't know how bad I could have looked at 21 that a haircut could have made me look "100 percent better."

How have your in-laws affected your relationship?

Got a problem? Send it, along with your questions and rants to cheryllavinrapp@gmail.com. And check out my ebook, "Dear Cheryl: Advice from Tales from the Front."