Last night I was watching a nature show about a tigress and her three little cubs. She made sure to lead her little cubs away whenever danger approached. Many times that danger was that of a family member (her mate and her grown up cubs). I'm kind of feeling like a tigress these past couple of days. We're going to see my husband's family for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I've had a couple of clashes with them before...over random parenting decisions. The problem is that now any little thing sets off a red flag for me. I want to be protective of myself and my "cub" but I don't want to be overly defensive either. Anybody else in a similar situation?

My sister has this problem with my parents. She got pregnant at 17 and had Zachary while still in high school. My parents ended up raising Zachary until she finished college. He was 5 at that time. Now they cant stop with the parenting and that causes clashes between them. My in laws take care of Nick whenever we need a babysitter. They took care of Nick the whole time I was in the hospital since Paul would stay with me till 4 or 5 in the evening then go get Nick and spend time with him. My in laws asked us how we wanted Nick disciplned so that they could follow our wishes.