My mother in law has lived with us for the past 4 years and she is 86 years old. She is fine healthwise and gets regular checkups but she has some strange habits that are causing me some difficulties in relating to her. First of all, she barely talks at all, she wears dark sunglasses and a hat all day long and sits for hours on end and doesn't move or say anything.I try very hard to be patient and am most of the time, but it is really depressing me to be around her and even though we have asked her what is the matter she never says anything. Recently her only daughter came to our house and we had an unfortunate incident where the daughter attacked me and my husband physically along with her own daughter, needless to say the daughter has not been allowed to come here anymore and no phone calls from her either are allowed. We spoke to my mother in law and told her why her daughter couldn't come anymore and she agreed or seemed to anyway, she saw the whole episode when her daughter came that day. I'm wondering whether this has caused her to become depressed, obviously, it is not easy for her to accept this, but the fact is she never even talks about anything at all, in fact she says nothing.Please help as it is causing me a lot of anguish and anxiety and problems between my husband and myself. Her son has been an excellent caregiver for her but she doesn't seem to appreciate anything or all he has done and does for her and it makes me mad that she seems so selfish in acting this way especially as we are the only ones who have taken care of her..
2. What's the relationship between her and the feisty daughter been prior to MIL moving in with you? Daughters don't just get mad and start beating up on someone in the family. Is there a history of physical altercation in this family?
I see nothing wrong with wearing a hat inside the house.... today guys will wear baseball caps inside the house. No big deal.
As for not talking, maybe Mom-in-law is having issues with hearing. My Mom was almost deaf due to age related hearing loss, and anyone who met her would think she had serious dementia because of her not hearing correctly and giving confusing answers, yet she was still sharp for her age once she caught on what someone was talking about.
Time for some doctor appointments.