the mother of a boy and his new wife (or affianced) engage in a turf war where the turf is the boy.
Every mother of a boy has a mixture of natural feelings when he prepares to marry.
The wise mother will soon realize what is going on, and that the natural feelings that occur to her (e.g. that girl is not good enough for my boy) are not legitimate feelings, and should not come between her and her daughter-in-law. The smart mother-in-law will never vocalize it, and will surrender graciously, preferably before the serious fighting has begun.
My own mother had about 36 hours of these feelings but she expressed them only to me. She expressed them kindly and with love. At the end of the 36 hours she surrendered graciously and my wife-to-be never knew that a shot had been fired. They get along with each other just swell, thanks to the wisdom and self-restraint of my mother.
I have some problems with my mother-in-law. They are the same legitimate problems that my wife has with her mother and I am clearly on my wife’s side. I suppose I married the problems. However, I never let them get in the way of my relationship with my m-i-l and I always treat her with the respect I treat my own mother. She is pretty happy with me since her daughter is happy with me.