My wife asked me to wake up early tomorrow morning to watch Michael so she can go do something. That normally wouldn't be a problem, except that she's going to do a favor for her mom. Her mom agreed to do a favor for somebody else, and she's asked my wife to do a favor for her to help her with the favor she's doing for somebody else, so now my wife is asking me to do a favor for her so she can do a favor for her mom. It all sounds so ridiculous, and it is completely so. My wife just can't understand why I resent her mom so much, when my life constantly gets rearranged around her mom. And if it's not her mom, it's her sister, or her dad.
My wife almost never spends time with her family just to visit--instead, she either goes to her mom's house to do a favor for her mom, or to ask a favor of her mom. Each person in her family is so busy doing favors for other family members, that each person has to ask favors of other family members in order to do everything they need to do, and it's a vicious cycle.
My family certainly isn't a burden on me, let alone on my wife, yet my in-laws (with one notable exception) are a substantial burden not only on my wife, but on me as well. My phone rings constantly due to them calling. Since last Monday, there have been 59 phone calls to my house from 4 of my wife's family members. In that same time period, there have been 8 calls from 4 of my family members. It's really weighing down on me, and one day I'm just going to snap.