A Hi, Becky, what's up?

嗨，貝基，有什么事嗎？

B Not much, except that my mother-in-law is driving me up the wall.

沒什么，只是我婆婆讓我氣憤。

A What's the problem?

怎么啦？

B She loves to nit-pick and criticizes everything that I do. I can never do anything right when she's around.

她喜歡吹毛求疵，批評我做的每件事情。當(dāng)她在邊上時，我什么事都做不好。

A For example?

舉個例子？

B Well, last week I invited her over to dinner. My husband and I had no problem with the food, but if you listened to her, then it would seem like I fed her old meat and rotten vegetables. There's just nothing can please her.

比如，上周我邀請她過來吃飯。我丈夫和我對飯菜都覺得沒什么不好，但如果你聽了她說的話，那就似乎是我給她吃臭肉、爛菜。簡直沒有一件事能讓她高興。

A No, I can't see that happening. I know you're a good cook and nothing like that would ever happen.

不，我看不出會發(fā)生這種事。我知道你是個手藝不錯的廚師，像那樣的事決不會發(fā)生。

B It's not just that. She also criticizes how we raise the kids.

事情還不止那樣。她還批評我怎么撫養(yǎng)小孩。

A My mother-in-law used to do the same thing to us. If it wasn't disciplining them enough, then we were disciplining them too much. She also complained about the food we fed them, the schools we sent them too, and everything else under the sun.

我岳母娘過去也常對我們這樣。如果不是對他們管得太嚴(yán)，就是對他們約束太多。她還抱怨我們給他們做的飯菜，我們所選的學(xué)校，以及世上的一切事情。

B You said she used to? How did you stop her?

你是說她過去也這樣？你怎么阻止她的？

A We basically sat her down and told her how we felt about her constant criticizing, and how we welcomed her advice but hoped she'd let us do our things. She understood, and now everything is a lot more peaceful.

我們主要是讓她坐下來，然后告訴她我們對她時刻不停地批評有什么感受，我們怎樣歡迎她提建議，但希望她能讓我們做我們的事。她理解了，現(xiàn)在一切都平靜多了。

B That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to try that.

聽起來是個好主意。我得試一試。