My mother’s MIL controlled everything and we the kids paid the price.

When I was a child until I was 12 my siblings and I lived in one room with our parents, inside a large extended family house ruled by my grandmother, my father’s mother.

She was the classic JustNoMIL.
She expected my mom to serve the entire household, especially her. My mother would wake up extremely early to clean, cook, and attend to the family’s needs and my grandmother made sure everything was done her way.

She constantly interfered in how we were raised. She criticized my mom’s parenting and overruled her decisions. My mom had no privacy, no independence, and barely any time or energy left for us her own kids. She was emotionally and physically drained, and it showed.

We often talk about the impact of controlling MILs on their DILs, and that’s very important. But something I rarely see mentioned is this:

What about the children growing up in these toxic, crowded, high pressure environments?

What happens when kids have no space of their own, no privacy, and are constantly exposed to family tension? What happens when their mom is too exhausted from serving her MIL to be emotionally present for them?

Yes, some women might agree to live with their in laws maybe for financial reasons or due to cultural expectations. But their children never agreed to it.
We didn’t choose this setup.
We are the most vulnerable ones and yet, we’re often left out of these conversations entirely.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a serious issue that deserves more attention?