Although some mothers-in-law aren’t as horrible as people think, not all of them are, and the following tales don’t help their standing. While some mothers-in-law want to bug their daughters-in-law, others exclude them from important occasions.
These five anecdotes, regrettably, just reinforce the negative stereotype about mothers-in-law and their treatment of their families.
Mother-in-law Requires Payment for Charging Expenses for Selfless Chores
A 31-year-old woman reached out to social media users on Reddit’s “AITA” community, asking for guidance. She disclosed that she had given birth to a child a week prior to posting, but problems forced her to stay in the hospital until the day before her post.
The original poster (OP), who was pregnant, talked about how her water broke when she and her 33-year-old husband were at home. The couple hurriedly tossed towels on the bedroom carpet and departed, hardly giving their house a second thought.
Her mother-in-law (MIL), 59, generously offered to feed their pets while they were stranded at the hospital; they were very grateful for the gesture. On the other hand, they found a message and receipt from the husband’s mother on the refrigerator when they got home.
MIL had surprisingly decided to clean the entire house, including the carpet in their bedroom. The memo stated that the cost of the cleaning supplies was $200 and the labor for the day was $25 per hour. The unexpected request for compensation stunned OP, who expressed disbelief by saying:
“Now, neither of us asked her to do this, even though it was kind of her to clean my carpet before the rest of my house.”
Her spouse texted his mother in response to the situation. He expressed his gratitude to her for looking after their dogs while they were in the hospital. He did, however, mention how they discovered the note on the refrigerator and how they were astonished to see her snooping around their home because neither had told her that OP had broken water in their bedroom.
Furthermore, he was perplexed as to why she had spent so much money on cleaning supplies and demanded payment from them as well as from her time spent tidying the home. Since they were supposed to pay for these cleaning supplies, they also needed to know where they were located in order to obtain value for their money.
According to OP’s spouse, when they trusted MIL to take care of their pets, they believed she was doing so out of kindness rather than as a means of generating quick cash. That she would act in such a way while OP was still ill upset him.
In her instant reply, MIL insisted that her acts were motivated by kindness and that she couldn’t fathom their lack of appreciation. Additional family members texted the OP to commend her MIL for her efforts and to let her know that even at her elderly age, she would still show them her love by helping.
In order to avoid the deluge of texts she was receiving, OP had to turn off her phone. Despite the MIL’s goal to prepare the house for the baby, her husband continued to get criticism from their relatives, who said the couple was manipulating the issue and unfairly painting her as the villain.
Although OP was extremely offended by the event, she struggled to accept her husband’s suggestion that they pay MIL in order to please their extended relatives and free up their time to concentrate on becoming new parents. The new mother, however, was not in favor of compensating her MIL for her unwanted actions.
The couple received a second message from MIL in which she expressed her willingness to provide them the cleaning supplies but insisted on getting payment for her work because she felt like she was cleaning up “a biohazard.”
But in the end, OP struggled with whether to compromise in order to achieve unity and peace or to uphold her moral convictions. If the actions of that meddling MIL didn’t surprise you enough, the next one will have you rolling your eyes!
During vacation, the woman’s mother-in-law keeps her out of the family dinner.
Another Reddit poster talked about how her husband’s family has always treated her with disdain since they thought she was a lower-class person. Because she believed that OP was less refined than the rest of their family, her MIL always treated her differently.
When the woman and her husband went on a family vacation with his family one day, they noticed something wasn’t quite right when they got there. Unbeknownst to OP, a family meal at an exclusive restaurant outside the hotel was scheduled for that evening.
It wasn’t until her spouse began getting dressed that OP discovered the truth. He mentioned that he and his family were heading out to dinner when she asked where he was headed. He also chose to inform her that she wasn’t welcome at that point.
He explained to her that his mother had imagined she wouldn’t want to go since she wouldn’t know how to eat the meal or identify it when she questioned why. OP’s husband, however, disclosed that his mother advised her to remain at the hotel and dine at the establishment in order to feel more comfortable.
Though shocked, the OP decided to maintain her composure and avoid getting into a fight with her spouse. She packed her bags and boarded the first flight back home as he departed for dinner. Her husband freaked out when he came back to their room and saw that she had already departed.
He had to ask his mother to let her go on the holiday, so he began phoning her nonstop to find out why she had left. When OP’s spouse remarked that his wife had embarrassed him in front of his family and branded her ungrateful for her actions, it didn’t help the situation.
After a fight, the couple split up, and he gave her the silent treatment for a while after getting back from vacation. Also, his family started insulting the woman on Facebook in an indirect manner. In a follow-up, OP disclosed that she was not even informed by her husband’s family about the cuisine they would be enjoying at the eatery.
She said that her brother-in-law’s girlfriend had also been left out, so she wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been included. OP questioned whether she had been unreasonable to cancel the family vacation after they had abused her, particularly considering that they had covered the cost of her travel.
Fortunately, the majority of Reddit people supported her, even though some thought her spouse was the primary issue; regrettably, she never came back with an update. You won’t soon forget this daughter-in-law’s retaliation against her mother-in-law, though, in the third tale.
A lady set up a trap for her snooping mother-in-law.
When a Reddit user’s mother-in-law (MIL) insisted on going into their bedroom whenever she visited her and her husband, the OP decided to follow her upstairs in silence and discovered the MIL poring over invoices on her dresser in her bedroom.
The elder woman, who claimed to have gone into the bedroom because she couldn’t find the bathroom, denied snooping when she faced her mother-in-law. However, OP was aware of what she observed and had fitted an exterior doorknob that needed a key.
Additionally, OP put the same mechanism in their office. Following the installations, MIL continued to upset her daughter-in-law (DIL) by claiming that she could not remember where the restroom was when she attempted to enter the office or bedroom.
“My spouse claims that I simply become irritated by her actions because they drive me insane, and now that we’ve locked the rooms she shouldn’t be in, the issue isn’t as pressing.”
But when MIL and OP’s sister-in-law (SIL) arrived for supper over the holidays, things became heated. OP realized then that this would be the perfect opportunity to exact revenge on her nosy MIL. She went looking for her keys to lock her bedroom when she found her MIL was coming over, but her husband told her not to because he thought his mother wouldn’t try to break into their bedroom.
After some debate, OP and her husband decided to cover their doorknob with fine glitter so they could see if MIL attempted to enter their bedroom. OP used this strategy successfully in the past when her husband didn’t think she was telling the truth about his mother spying on them.
This time, though, OP went above and beyond by hanging a glitter folder over the door and covering the doorknob in glitter. It would fall to the floor and cover MIL in glitter if she went into the room. She opened the bedroom door and bided her time till her mother-in-law fell into her deceit.
When his family arrived, her husband showed them where the restroom was and urged them not to go upstairs. OP shared that MIL quickly disregarded his plea and proceeded upstairs to their bedroom, where she became completely covered in glitter from her hair to her hands.
“My spouse says I went too far after she lost it and began screaming at me. So I yelled back.”
In addition, the MIL informed OP how awful she felt for what she had done. Her SIL comforted her, though, saying that she had done nothing wrong and that the MIL deserved it since she was snooping. MIL even claimed that she was unable to remove the glitter and that it had damaged her automobile.
OP felt awful, despite having good intentions, and she asked Redditors if she had gone too far or if what she had done was appropriate. While some social media users felt that OP wasn’t at fault, others thought her husband wasn’t doing enough to make things right.
Even though OP may have gained her retribution, her humanity made her question her choices due to her unsupportive husband. In the narrative that follows, the older woman excluded the younger woman from the Thanksgiving festivities, but the former received the blame from her mother-in-law for spoiling the holiday.
Son’s ex-girlfriend is preferred by mother-in-law above his wife
A Reddit user, 28, asked for help from the community regarding a Thanksgiving scenario at her mother-in-law’s house. After dating for two years, she had been married to her 33-year-old husband Shaun for five months.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the nicest relationship with her MIL because of her criticism of the OP and passive-aggressive behavior. MIL, on the other hand, got along well with Shaun’s ex-girlfriend Julissa, who was still invited to family events.
Because of the close relationship she had developed with them all, Julissa had been able to maintain excellent relations with everyone despite her breakup with Shaun. Even though it wasn’t ideal, OP didn’t object if Julissa showed up for holidays and family get-togethers.
When MIL had Thanksgiving dinner at her house, everything was different. It was already dinnertime when OP arrived at the venue because her husband had left earlier than her. Everybody was seated and ready to eat, taking up every chair.
There was not room for another chair, nor were there any more seats available for OP. The elder woman apologized and said her granddaughter had joined the party at the last minute when OP begged her MIL to take a seat.
OP gestured at Julissa, who was sitting next to her husband, expressing dissatisfaction with her MIL’s remark. She asserted that she had a greater right to be at the table than Shaun’s ex-girlfriend because she was the daughter-in-law. Before OP had the chance to stop herself, she had already said the things.
Julissa was her MIL’s family, too, and she said the other person was being impolite if they didn’t agree. As the conversation was going on, Julissa sat, nodded, and looked at OP. The Redditor disclosed:
“Even though I wanted to cry and go home, I chose to just sit on my husband’s knee and pretend everything was fine. I sat on his lap and asked if that was alright with him.
OP began eating with her spouse while perched on his lap, expressing gratitude for the meal. Nevertheless, when OP complimented her husband on his cozy and warm lap, there was an awkward pause around the meal. In an attempt to break the discomfort, her brother-in-law (BIL) tried to strike up a discussion, but they were unable to do so.
MIL and Julissa, meantime, had hardly touched their lunch and had only been staring at each other when they turned to face OP. Julissa eventually excused herself to use the restroom, and MIL went with her. Even with the odd setting, OP and her husband carried on with their meal.
After dinner, OP and her husband departed, but not before receiving a message from her mother-in-law informing her that she had spoiled Thanksgiving and was inappropriate. The Redditor could have moved a chair out of the kitchen, according to the MIL, rather than acting like a toddler and upsetting Julissa.
The majority of Reddit users supported the original poster, and others again criticized the husband for not trying to diffuse the issue. In the last story, a MIL offered to bring her own Thanksgiving dinner instead of eating her DIL’s.
When her mother requested that she bring her own food for Thanksgiving, the woman was offended.
A 32-year-old woman posted on Reddit in November 2022, seeking guidance over an incident she had with her mother-in-law during Thanksgiving. She disclosed that year, she would be having Thanksgiving at her place and that she had spent the entire month trying out different dishes to prepare her menu.
She couldn’t wait to show her family what she had been making. OP’s 35-year-old husband provided her with support and guidance during the planning and preparation stage. She made a menu with a variety of dishes, some classics and other original creations, and purchased all the ingredients.
OP’s husband told her that his mother wanted to bring her own food when they visited, which is why she shared her tale on Reddit. Startled, the Reddit member questioned whether it was still required since she had made more than enough food.
Her mother’s behavior was excused by her husband, who described her as a “grade A picky eater” who wouldn’t “like” anything his wife made. OP claimed that her menus were well-known and provided a wide range of options, calling the explanation for absurd.
Her husband, however, disregarded her remarks when he said that he felt his mother bringing her own dinner was a “good compromise.” OP disagreed, stating that she would feel ashamed if MIL ate something completely different from everyone else and that it would be a clear criticism of her cooking abilities.
OP believed that, given all the time, money, and effort her MIL had put into cooking the lunch, her request was impolite and disrespectful. Frustrated, she informed her husband that his mother might stay at home and eat whatever she had prepared for herself, and that she was not permitted to eat anything at their house.
The husband of OP accused his wife of spoiling the trip and referred to her as petty and inconsiderate. But after all the work she’d put in, OP believed she should have been in the company of loved ones who recognized her efforts, not of someone who disapproved of everything she did and made fun of her food.
Even if her MIL didn’t like anything, she was happy nevertheless.
She wanted to share her labor of love—the Thanksgiving preparations—with her family and friends. But she wasn’t sure if it was OK to ban her mother-in-law if the elder woman insisted on turning down everything she had prepared, so she questioned Reddit users.
Additionally, OP disclosed the Thanksgiving food she intended to serve. It featured a number of classic foods, like creamy mashed potatoes, stuffing, and roasted turkey. For a more traditional touch, she also planned to serve green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, potatoes au gratin, and cranberry sauce.
In addition, OP prepared roasted carrots, roasted squash with goat cheese, and handmade bread rolls with apple butter. Savory selections like braised short ribs and honey-glazed ham were offered, while unusual dishes like feta cheese pies, spinach, bacon, and a special white-sauce lasagna, as well as stuffed mushrooms, enhanced the flavor of the feast.
She had three pies planned for dessert: apple, pumpkin, and pecan. She didn’t understand how her MIL couldn’t find anything to eat with the menu being so large. She posted an update and thanked Redditors for their comments and ideas.
She admitted to being offended after giving it some thought, but she chose to “kill her with kindness.” OP was worn out and overwhelmed, but she welcomed her MIL anyway since she wanted Thanksgiving to be wonderful for everyone.
She intended to disregard any negative comments and concentrate on her other guests. OP made the decision to be the bigger person for her family, deciding that her MIL wouldn’t ruin her day. Even while she remained upset, she hoped her MIL would give something new a try and love it.
Even if her MIL didn’t like anything, she was happy nevertheless. Reddit users divided on whether the MIL should dine at her house before seeing her DIL, with some suggesting that OP’s husband should handle the preparations as he didn’t think it was a big problem.
Whatever the case, the important thing is that OP found a solution that gave her some peace.
