Dear Abby | Readers covet in-law who cleans

DEAR ABBY: I just read the letter from "Dirty Family Laundry," who asked you how to stop her mother-in-law from doing her laundry. Would you please ask her to send her mother-in-law to my house? She'd be greatly appreciated.

- Tired in Illinois

DEAR TIRED: Your sentiments were echoed in the majority of the responses I received from readers about that letter. Most of them felt she should stop "sweating the small stuff" and be grateful to have a mother-in-law who is willing to help out any way she can. Read on:

DEAR ABBY: Not only is the writer of that letter "particular," but also ungrateful. Life is too short to look for things to complain about. Let it go, dear. So what if she doesn't do the laundry just right? It can all be replaced, and sooner or later you will find whatever item she has misplaced.

- Linda in Texas

DEAR ABBY: My mother-in-law used to come to our house for weekend visits. My husband and I would work and come home to a "clean" kitchen. The only problem was she couldn't see very well, and all of the dishes were still dirty and put in the wrong cupboards. The stove and countertops were also covered with an inch of soap film.

After about six visits, and grumbling under our breath after she left, my husband and I decided this would become the ritual and turned it into a treasure hunt to recapture our kitchen.

My mother-in-law has since had a stroke that has left her paralyzed, so she doesn't visit anymore. What we wouldn't do to have her whole again. *

- What's Two Days Every Now

and Then?