Choose: Governor’s mother or his mother-in-law?

First a disclaimer; I don’t know if somebody actually said it, but I heard it a few times and the latest was three days ago where I debated it with two women. Well, it was said that one woman said, “It is better for my daughter to be the governor’s wife than for my son […]

First a disclaimer; I don’t know if somebody actually said it, but I heard it a few times and the latest was three days ago where I debated it with two women.
Well, it was said that one woman said, “It is better for my daughter to be the governor’s wife than for my son to be the governor.”
This is because of what happens in reality, that a wife dominates the home; that some even bring in their relatives, while the husbands’ are not given similar welcoming treatment. In fact, some men are said to warn their relatives against going to their homes, so that they would not offend their wives!
However, apart from taking it as a joke, this is a minus for the men, as this negative perception underscores how badly many of them treat their parents and relations.
In the ensuing debate, one of the women pointed out that if you were the governor’s mother, he may just send some bags of food items to you, while his mother-in-law may reside in the Government House and feed on the variety of food and other delicacies prepared for the governor (your son); definitely more delicious than the one prepared in your house.
“But as the governor’s mother, some big people would come and greet you,” I said. But they disagreed with  me, insisting that it was more advantageous to be the governor’s mother-in-law; what with all the pilgrimages and foreign shopping trips, not to talk of escorting your daughter abroad to give birth and so on and so forth.
It is unfortunate that mothers that naturally want the best for their children would now be thinking that rather than their sons to attain some prestigious position in life (governor, senator, president and the like) they would wish it on another woman’s son.
The way political office holders live big makes people equate their offices with tremendous wealth and that is why many are desperate to win elections. So now, the hope and prayer is to have a relative as governor, senator and so on, but the juiciest is to have him as your son-in-law.
In any case, the relationship between a mother and her son shouldn’t have deteriorated to this level. If yours sincerely were of the male folk and heard this crude ‘joke’ or whatever it is, I would pause and examine my relationship with my mother. If she is alive I would review how I treat her and improve on it; if she is dead I would intensify my prayer for her and seek God’s forgiveness for I might have offended her, particularly if I got married while she was alive.
The scenario above does not speak well of women either; it portrays them as selfish people who alienate their husbands from their mothers, while imposing theirs on them.
I wonder about such husbands, if really they are in their senses – or are so bewitched that they could neglect their own mothers while falling all over themselves to be ‘good sons’ to their mothers-in-law.
In most of such cases, the wife’s relatives are always in the house, but when the husband’s mother, for instance, makes a trip to  the house in order for her to see a doctor in Abuja from her town, the wife and her mother would not be happy until she leaves.
“Let her come and see what we are eating,” the wife would say in anger, ignoring the fact that the woman goes there  only in order to see  a doctor.
Some of these wives would also try to discourage their husbands from buying expensive clothes for their mothers, saying they are old women so the clothes would not be fitting for  them. But they wouldn’t mind buying same material for their own mothers.
Still, some husbands would give money to the wives to buy clothes for their (husbands’) mothers, the wives would buy cheap ones, but claim to have bought expensive ones.
Men should take note and remember what their mothers went through to bring them up; the sacrifices they made to see them through school and so on. They should be vigilant and take good care of their mothers, after all, no matter what, they can never repay their mothers, but God will reward them.
And if they offend their mothers by this sort of brazen favouritism of their wives’ mothers, well that would definitely come back home to roost, or as the proverb goes, whatever you sow is what you shall reap.
For the governor’s mother-in-law, what if he divorces her daughter or marries another wife, what then would you do? But your son will always be your son; nobody can change that even if his wife would want to give him another mother, which is her own mother. Men, this is a challenge to you.