What's in a name??

These days I am visiting my son and daughter in law at Nashua in United States of America. They are both involved in a lot of activities therefore we meet a lot of people during some function, get together or party.
Invariably I am asked if I am Jharna's mother. The moment I say I am her mother in law, often the other person says, "Oh but a mother in law is like a mother only".
 After hearing this statement more than once, I began to wonder why this defensive statement had to be made. Is being a mother in law not enough, do I have to step into the shoes of someone else?
All of us in this world are related to a lot of people. The relationship may be good, bad or ugly, but the fact remains that we are related. No mother can name one of her children as her favourite. One cannot actually know if one has a favourite brother or sibling. That sort of a question never arises when we talk of our parents. We cannot say or decipher if we love one parent more than the other. This simply means that love is unfathomable. You can have affection and love for a lot of different relationships. If we love someone from our nuclear family, when an addition is made by way of a marriage, it does not diminish the love for the other original members. Does it?
Why then this justification that you as a mother in law are as good as a mother? Can I not be a mother in law and not be judged for my relationship? These distinctions and lack of understanding or rather inherent fear is all created by us... deliberately.
We all need to start accepting that everyone in this world generally wants good and happy relationship with everyone else. All of us want to live happily and peacefully.  All of us keep on making new friends and also keep on adding to new relationships as we go on in life. Why begin with fear for a monster-in -law? Oh dear ! Did I just write that? Even I, with all my pontificating...still have the fear deeply enshrined in my own being??
Nevertheless, I, a mother in law of two outstanding people of this world, need to be accepted for what I am and not for trying to fit into the shoes of someone else!