Mother-In-Law: Julie (54)

Daughter-In-Law: Lacey (27)

Location: Santee, California

Like Mother, Like Daughter In-Law

From the casting application: What do you do with your in-laws that most people don’t or wouldn’t do with their in-laws? “Lacey: We pop each other’s pimples. She puts butt cream on my butt when it is inflamed. I have wiped her butt after a few too many adult beverages. We talk about our sex lives in detail. She walks around me naked. We can “beam” each other our thoughts. She helped me extract breast milk after my son was born and recorded the first drop coming out of my nipple. We have frequent sleep overs. We show up to each other’s houses without asking.”

Julie and Lacey are the definition of close, but what’s even stranger here, they aren’t biologically related. They chose this life! They have matching tattoos (and they’re talking about more!) they have best-friend bracelets, they even wear the same perfume (which absolutely weirds out and turns off Lacey’s husband). They were baptized together in the ocean, oh, and they even work together at the same hospital! Julie says she’s never had a relationship as intimate as her relationship with her daughter in-law. They’ll talk in depth about each other’s sex lives and Austin is blissfully unaware about how much his mother knows.

Lacey and Julie first met when Lacey and Austin first started dating in high school. Lacey was working at McDonald’s and Julie had a reputation as a “Karen” when it came to her coffee order. Austin warned Lacey that his mother was coming to McDonalds. Lacey pushed the girl working the window out of the way and served a warm smile to her mother-in-law to be, and they’ve been best friends ever since. 

Austin (Julie’s son) is a kind-hearted young man, who was raised by a single mother. Julie and his father split when he was young, so it was just Austin and Julie growing up together. Austin is a self-described mama’s boy, but now that Lacey is in the picture, Julie has two children to dote on. Austin doesn’t like when his mother knows intimate details about his sex life. He also doesn’t like how they will keep secrets from him or make plans without his input. Usually, Austin is the last to find out what’s going on. In fact, it was his mother, not him, who was allowed into the hospital room when Lacey gave birth to their son. Yes, they are that close.

Lacey cherishes her relationship with Julie partially because her relationship with her own mother is rocky. Lacey had a rough childhood, and her biological mother was a far-cry from what a mother and a role model should be. Lacey didn’t know what true family, friendship and what a real, true mother is until she met Julie. Even if Julie is her mother-in-law, to Lacey, that’s her mom. Lacey still is in contact with her mother, but their relationship brings up issues from the past, unpleasant arguments and jealously that Lacey would sooner avoid. To make matters worse, Julie has a poor relationship with her husband, Brian’s, mother. When Julie allowed Lacey and Austin to live with her and Brian instead of allowing Brian’s mother to move in, that was the nail in the coffin. To this day, even though they live down the street from one another, Julie and her mother in-law are not on speaking terms, putting Brian squarely in the middle.

Anyone who meets Brian comes away asking themselves if they’ve just been interrogated by a human lie detector? As a former police officer, Brian is Type-A, opinionated, abrasive, unfiltered, usually regarded as a jerk, no-nonsense, and the self-appointed, “alpha-male” of the house. He detests Julie and Lacey’s relationship. He finds them to be childish and co-dependent. After Lacey and Austin lived with them temporarily, Brian grew to resent Lacey. Not simply because he would monopolize Julie’s time and attention, but he found Lacey to be messy and disrespectful of his home. Today, Lacey and Brian do not have a good relationship. Brian mildly tolerates their closeness for the sake of his wife.

Austin and Lacey are the parents of a rambunctious three-year-old named Nathan. Lacey isn’t done having babies and neither is Julie. However, Austin is happy with one child, but his wife and his mom are pressuring him into having more children. Julie will even help Lacey plan date nights that set the mood for a sexual encounter so that her child will conceive another grandchild. Outside of the pressure of having another kid, Lacey is having a difficult time getting pregnant. They’ve miscarried once and are struggling to conceive. They’re trying anything and everything, and Julie has been helping the couple in any way that she can. 

This year promises to be a big year for Julie and Lacey. Lacey is struggling to conceive and is exploring any help or alternatives on her journey towards pregnancy. Julie is trying to nurture both her marriage as well as her time and commitments with Lacey. Julie is trying to mend a broken relationship with her own mother in-law who lives just down the street while Lacey is also navigating a fractured relationship with her own mother. Whatever happens, Lacey and Julie will always have one another for support and unconditional love along the way.