Trip to see my in-laws almost complete; it just remains to fly back home. Mostly successfully navigated, except for the evening where my mother-in-law sat us down to tell us off for our "permissive" parenting, without actually saying anything about our "permissive" parenting. Like, it was a lot of, "Well, I don't feel like I can say anything," followed by my factual reply of, "I've actually asked you for advice as recently as this week." No specific points were raised, no constructive criticism was given, just a lot of vague, "I don't want to offend, and I don't feel like I can say anything."
I thought it was a clash of Ask Culture versus Guess Culture, but my wife pointed out my mother-in-law's first husband would get into a lot of screaming arguments with his wife, and speculated that her mother has become addicted to the adrenalin rush. Too bad for her my dad and I got into serious arguments my whole life growing up, and I now refuse to get into them unless they are absolutely necessary. I have a thick skin.