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It is very frustrating indeed to deal with family attitudes. Sue's
post about these attitudes eventually improving cheered me up a lot.
My mother-in-law is the main attitude problem for me; although I've
told her many times that this diet is for good, not a temporary
thing, she seems unable or unwilling to understand, and keeps
offering me muffins and desserts, and saying things like "Hasn't your
diet worked yet?" When I say "Yes, it's working great, that's why I'm
sticking to it!" she seems honestly baffled.

I think in her case she simply can't figure it out, although I always
thought of her as intelligent. Her doctor recently placed her on a
lactose-free diet, and I realized that she had not the faintest idea
of what a category of foods is, such as: dairy foods. She is lost
without her little list of what she can and can't eat, and will say
things like, "Is cottage cheese, OK, do you think?" When her
gastrointestinal problems cleared up completely on her new regime,
she promptly abandoned the diet! She was really mad when, of course,
the diarrhea returned. She now sort of follows her diet, and carries
around lactase-replacement tablets which she rather indiscriminately
takes whenever she thinks something will "disagree" with her.

The most annoying experience was New Year's Day dinner at her place
recently. She has at least made a point of having a brand of corn
chips I can eat (I have to be sure she doesn't put them on the plate
with the crackers), but the rest of her menu was completely off
limits: a non-gf baked ham, biscuits, and a pasta salad. I offered to
bring a potato casserole (so I could have a meal!) and she kept
saying, no, no, don't go to that trouble, there's plenty of food. So
I made one anyway, and brought it; she was quite peeved and hinted
strongly that I was displaying very bad manners not to accept her
hospitality fully. I was careful to use a rice milk (Pacific Rice)
instead of dairy milk, but she pointedly did not take any of the
casserole. Everybody else liked it. As a last-minute concession to
me, she did change salads--not pasta, but Caesar! Fortunately, my
alert and supportive husband intercepted her before she dumped in the
croutons and dressing, and saw that I got nothing but a plate of
lettuce, which I dressed with olive oil. As she is trying--I
think--she did have those corn chips--maybe her attitude toward her
own diet and mine will improve with time and familiarity. (I sure
hope so. Even her husband, a retired doctor and more sympathetic to
the situation, was a bit snappy with me at the table, asking if the
wine was one I could drink; I said all wines are fine with me. I
suspect he was short with me because his wife was so visibly annoyed.
I tried to just keep smiling and pretended not to notice.)

Thanks for letting me ventilate! I will say more about my casserole
in another post.

Good luck and good health!
Bobbi in Baltimore