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Marriage is a commitment, and not only to your spouse. In addition to marrying your one true love, you’re also marrying their family and their friends. And, while a man’s relationship with his mother-in-law and/or father-in-law can vary from BFFs to bitter enemies, you have to get along with them. They’re family! The trickier situation is often the spouse’s friends, or, as I like to call them, “friend-in-laws.”

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Now, if you and your significant other share all the same friends, and everyone can sit together and sing “Kum Ba Ya” without killing each other (or the use of alcohol), then great. However, more often than not there is that one friend that is just a worthless waste of human existence (at least in your eyes) that your wife or husband hearts. Whether she’s the cackling sistah girl who didn’t think you were worth shit to begin with or that “big brother” guy pal YOU know always wanted to be more than that, these are people you will have to deal with, right? I mean, they have been friends forever. They have passed out on your couch. They were in your wedding. And, if you’ve married this woman or man, you on some level have accepted them as “friends”…right?

If you’re not sure, here are 5 types of friend-in-laws and my advice about how to best handle them:

  1. The know-it-all sistahgirl. Hook her up with one of your “good guy” friends (see below). Just make sure that he doesn’t screw her over. It will be more trouble than it’s worth.
  2. The space cadet. The chick who just seems late…to life. Have patience. She is usually also really hot, so it makes her a little more tolerable. If you’re not patient (and she is cute), kill her with kindness. Your wife will likely get really jealous and she will disappear.
  3. The snob. Ignore her. Snobs hate that shit.
  4. The wet blanket. She is sometimes No. 1 as well, but more often than not she is afraid…to do anything.
  5. The good guy. That male best friend that used to listen to all her problems. There’s no easy way around this one. You just have to grin and bear it. Sorry.

And, if all else fails, just call in your dumbass friends that she hates. Yes, believe it or not, you have at least one… Yup, that one.

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