Hehe, I try to make MIL feel secure, by remembering her b'day and make hb celebrate for her. This way she feel she gain a daughter and not lost a son. In this way MIL happy, hb also happy, cos he most afraid to be in btw us. And sometimes I'll complain to MIL say hb never listen to me and ask her to help me discipline him, so she still feels in-charge. And of course, I also try my best to treat her as my own mum, I pay attention to her needs too and do things for her without her asking so in this way, she now reciprocate and is nice to me too. But of course, you'll need a reasonable MIL to start with, if someone really nasty, I think it'll not be easy to be nice or even talk to her.