Not every in-law relationship will be smooth-sailing. Every family will have occasional rifts and friction because of differences in personality traits, expectations, and even traditions.
However, there’s a massive difference between occasional disagreements and repeatedly crossing somebody’s boundaries. These can take the form of offering unsolicited advice, meddling in a couple’s decisions, trying to control matters they shouldn’t, and basically everything these mothers-in-law did.
These are firsthand accounts of people who expressed their MIL-related grievances on Reddit. Scroll through and see if you relate to any of these.
#41
It’s not the worst but it was the most bizarre and the trigger event that made me think, “Oh, she’s not ok.”
She used to steal my clothes, wear them, and deny they were mine. It was always stuff that was WAY back in a drawer or the closet that I hadn’t worn in a while, and it was only every few months so I didn’t notice the pattern at first. I literally thought I was going crazy until she posted a photo on social media in a dress that I had hand-embroidered myself.
She used to steal my clothes, wear them, and deny they were mine. It was always stuff that was WAY back in a drawer or the closet that I hadn’t worn in a while, and it was only every few months so I didn’t notice the pattern at first. I literally thought I was going crazy until she posted a photo on social media in a dress that I had hand-embroidered myself.
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3points
#42
Told me my husband would be a wonderful father but I wouldn’t be a good mother
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3points
#43
She lives in another country, so we don't see her very often, but the last time she stayed with us she left magnetic poetry on the fridge that was very obviously pointed at me and ended with "jerk."
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3points
#44
Purposely didn’t give me any kind of condolence when my grandfather passed away. My husband called her out and her response was “i forgot” and still did not say anything
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3points
#45
Told my husband that I was a gold digger with terrible politics (I’m getting my PhD in political science. Take your jealous elsewhere, Martha). Also told my family that I was trying to exclude her from wedding planning stuff when I went out of my way to include her
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3points
#46
Told us they were doing a separate wedding from their side (their whole family was in another country and they wanted to do it in that country. They told us it would be a joint wedding with his brother), only to find out once we got there that it was his brother’s wedding only. Brother did his entrance with his wife while we stood to the side in utter disbelief. My parents paid for the entire wedding in the US because they believed they were doing a separate event in their country
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3points
#47
Ruined the birth of our first child by telling my wife she wasn’t going to come for his birth. Her reasoning was that she didn’t get to spend the night with us beforehand in the hospital room despite never mentioning this expectation previously.
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3points
#48
She insinuated that my son’s developmental delays are my fault because I refuse to send him to daycare.
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3points
#49
Three months after my stroke. (About a year after I married DH) we were at the in-laws for a family holiday event two weeks before Christmas. They are 6 hours away. As dh was packing the car so we can head home, I’m sitting at the kitchen table (still using a walker) and she tells me I just need to get over it.
Over a stroke. A traumatic brain injury.
Yup.
Over a stroke. A traumatic brain injury.
Yup.
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3points
#50
Mine showed up announced the day after I miscarried our first baby and said, so I'm not gonna be a grandma this year then?
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3points
#51
Mine told me I was ruining her son life by making him do his own laundry, like she raised a prince or something.
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3points
#52
She gave me a box of the gifts I had given her to sell at our garage sale.
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2points
#53
Wouldn’t come meet our newborn because I said she wouldn’t be able to hold or kiss him
Told my husband to wear the pants and not enforce my boundaries
She’s never met my son, and I’m good! Lol.
Told my husband to wear the pants and not enforce my boundaries
She’s never met my son, and I’m good! Lol.
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2points
#54
She said that "so and so's" daughter got away from them implying she wanted her as the daughter in law.
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2points
#55
Telling me that her babies where much cuter not less then 4 times the first time she my DD (at the time her first and only grandchild). There’s more but that one has stuck with me.
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2points
#56
She was late to our wedding.
She told our oldest child the gender of our new baby before we could. Still angry about it.
The list is long.
She told our oldest child the gender of our new baby before we could. Still angry about it.
The list is long.
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2points
#57
My MIL bought a whole bunch of cleaning supplies for us because she didn’t like the stuff we used. I personally don’t like bleach in my house with young kids, and she bought us a few different bleach products for us. Felt like she was telling us we don’t have a clean enough house, and when I talked to her about it she started crying saying it was for her to help out because she can’t do hard work and wants the chemicals to do the work for her. She also ended up leaving early and never helped out so we just have I pile of cleaning supplies I just want to toss out.
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2points
#58
We lived with my mother in law for a while, when we saved up for a house. It was mothers day, my husband had to work so we made plans to go to lunch the following day. She said bc it was mothers day she wasnt cooking dinner which i understood and had no problem with. Then she went out with her other son who also lived there and is a complete loser. Came home and started talking about how he took her out to dinner and got her a burger and it was ao delicious and the best burger ahe ever had and shes so stuffed from dinner. She wanted to make me feel some type of way bc my husband wasnt taking me out on mothers day. Turns out, her son took her to the wendys drive through.
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2points
#60
She asked me to go out of my own home while she visited my H and children that’s she had no interest in anyway.
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2points