Her son was born with severe mental problems. Although most aristocratic families sent mentally challenged relatives to institutions, the Lambs cared for their son at home until his eventual death in 1836, eight years after Lady Caroline's own death. The stress of their son's ill health, combined with William Lamb's consuming career ambitions, drove a wedge between the couple. A further difficulty was that William's brothers and sister, a very close-knit clan, all detested Caroline, whom they called "the little beast", while she and her mother-in-law hated each other from the start, and their lifelong enmity was to be a great cause of unhappiness to Caroline.