Mind Your Manners

An Internet lesson for future mothers-in-law: If you're unhappy with your future daughter-in-law's behavior, keep your thoughts to yourself, or at least don't email them to her.

One British woman has learned that the hard way after her blunt email went viral on the Internet and was reprinted in British newspapers.

After a "get-to-know-you" family visit apparently turned into an ordeal, Carolyn Bourne wrote an email to Heidi Withers, telling her she had a thing or two to learn about proper manners before she married Bourne's 29-year-old stepson, Freddie.

The email criticized everything from Withers' table manners and sleeping habits to her parents' financial status.

Withers then passed on the email to some friends, who passed it on to others. It sparked a debate in the press, on Twitter and on Facebook about who was right: The hyper-critical mother-in-law or
the future bride who offended her in-laws by specifying what foods she wouldn't eat and taking seconds without asking permission.

The future bride's father has gotten into it -- telling the Daily Mail that his daughter's mother-in-law-to-be seems to be an unbearable snob.