Does anyone else's mother-in-law (or mother) try to tell you how you should raise your children? And always want to offer "constructive" criticism? If so, how do you deal with it?

I do not have children yet, but my mother-in-law is a very nice lady and never "insults" her daughters for the way they raise their children.

My mother on the other hand.....

Aris, My mother said it best. "I may not agree with what you do, or the methods you use to Rais my grand daughter, But at the end of the day she is your child and No one could have told me how to raise you. I will offer my advise and be here for questions but it is just that. Advise." You have to understand that we are all differnt. My mother-in-law has a verr loud opnion and there are times that it gets to be too loud. I just simply acknowledge that her opnion was heard and thank her for her imput. Then boldly do my way infront of her. Just tell her. "I got this" and let that be that. You may ask for your husbands suport in the issues at hand. She may back off if the Odd's are clearly 2/1 against her. Just know she loves you and your children or she would not have an opnion.

I dont have kids yet but I have a feeling my mother in law is going to be that way. I would just flat out tell her that they are your kids and you decide whats best for them. But me and my mother in law are two totally different people. She kind of dont care what her other grandkids do and they run all over her. She lets them curse and they are only 2 and 3 years old! I have news for her though, my child will not be around her if she dosent straighten her act up. You just have to be firm sometimes for them to listen.

Yes, whenever my husbands parents come down from Italy, we always get told what to do.
Normally i just listen and ignore them. I snapped at her once when she called me a bad mother, and oh my, boy was that a mistake.

I guess advice is just listen to her, agree with her (I know hard especially if you are stubborn)but in the end run these are your kids not hers. Raise them the way you think is right.

My mother-in-law is, i have concluded, from hell. She has never fully accepted me and until we lost our first daughter, had no intentions of attempting to even get along with me. Thru this pregnancy she has critisized everything. From how and what I eat to how I dress to the prenatals (prescribed by the dr) that i've been taking.
When we found out we were having a girl she began shoving the name Elizabeth down our throats and i thought she was going to go into convulsions when we told her that we chose Iona Jean, (We still haven't told her we revised it to Bella Iona-Jean for our first daughter). Both her and her daughter have made fun of the name Iona (in my family for 6 generations) and she even told me that she would make fun of our daughter if that was her first name. (this was at her wedding rehearsal and with Siayne with me, all i could do is walk away or the wedding would have had to have been post-poned due to her hospitalization)
I'm terrified of when Bella is born cuz i know that she is gonna be so controlling.... Her first two grandsons from her daughter might as well be hers cuz her daughter jus relents and lets her take over and do as she likes, which i fully intend on not letting her do!!
I don't care about hurting her feelings cuz she has obviously never cared about mine. The way i see it, i'm the one thats carried me daughter and the one thats going to give birth to her and i may be young and this may be my first but i think i have good instincts and i'll know better how to raise my daughter than she will. And i think thats how all over-bearing MIL's should be handeled.