Bachelorette parties are things that many brides look forward to when planning their big day. A week or weekend to decompress with their closest friends and family is exactly what most ladies need before the hecticness and chaos that comes with their wedding day. While bachelorette parties are supposed to be fun, carefree, and totally wild, there are some instances where things unfortunately don’t map out as such.
One woman on Reddit recently opened up about an uncomfortable experience she had when attending her future SIL’s bachelorette party. What she thought was going to be a fun, easy night turned into a mess of trauma and awkwardness.
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The backstory
The Reddit SmallNatural8820 shared that an MLM scheme completely ruined her SIL’s bachelorette party. For those who don’t know, MLMs are multilevel marketing businesses—think of them as a pyramid scheme that you’ve probably heard of or seen before. People buy into a business or product, and they attempt to bring in more money by recruiting friends and family to buy and sell the product alongside them. While it can work for some, many individuals end up draining money into a business that doesn’t pan out.
The Reddit user shared that this is what had happened to her own mother, leading to destruction in her family.
“What happened was, my mother joined a supplement MLM, got way into it, drained both my and my brother’s(33M) college funds, and went into tens of thousands of dollars of debt, to maintain her rank,” she wrote.
The pain runs real deep in this family
Not only did the MLM cause issues for her parents, but it led to her entire family falling apart. The Reddit user shared that her parents divorced because her mother refused to leave the MLM and they had to sell their home and live in their grandparents’ basement. In addition, their mother drained their college funds and both she and her brother had to work throughout high school and take out loans for college—all to support their family.
Clearly, MLMs are a touchy subject for this family.
Fast forward to her SIL’s bachelorette party, the future bride decided to do something a bit more low-key than an international trip to the beach. She wanted to have some of her friends and family over her house with games, food, and drinks. All seemed to be going pretty well until one of the girls at the party decided to “let the fun begin.”
She proceeded to come out of the other room with a box full of erotic toys and apparently, began to pitch her MLM—trying to recruit the other girls at the party to join in.
But, it wasn’t a big secret
According to the Reddit user, her SIL knew about this from the jump.
“From the get go, she said that my SIL agreed to host, and at the end of the night, depending on how much we got, she will get some money to help with her honeymoon,” she wrote.
The Reddit user was clearly upset, so she grabbed her two younger cousins who were also in attendance, and decided they should all leave. However, she felt an obligation to tell the other women how dangerous and terrible MLMs were before she left.
“I went on a rant about MLMs, how scammy they are, how I bet after plying them with alcohol, they will be pressured into buying stuff they didn’t want, as well as into joining this pyramid scheme,” she explained.
That did not end well…
Her SIL did not take well to this and began to cry. She asked the Reddit user to just leave and told her that she “ruined her bachelorette party.” The future groom, while understanding where his sister was coming from, said that she should have just left without causing such a big scene amongst the other women at the party.
While the Reddit user admits she felt a little bad about ruining the party, she felt no remorse about standing up to the “scammer” who was there. She asked other Reddit users if she was wrong for the way she handled herself at the party.
There are many who agree
Many people on Reddit were rallying around the Reddit user, saying that she had a good reason and good cause for her behavior.
“I think SIL is the AH here for agreeing to organize such a bizarre bachelorette, especially knowing her to be husband and your history with MLMs. You could’ve handled it more graciously but I understand why you didn’t,” one person wrote.
Others blamed the bride
Some people felt the bride was absolutely braindead for this kind of party.
“Throwing a MLM event for a bachelorette party is at a minimum exploitive, if not predatory. And doing it while inviting you knowing your family’s history is breathtakingly clueless. Forget scolding you; your brother should be having a very serious talk with his fiancée right now,” another shared.
The friends were to blame, too
“She tried to use her bachelorette party as a front for a pyramid scheme. She was planning to get you all drunk and scam you out of your money. That’s an AH move,” stated a Reddit user.
Others were unsure
Some people, however, were on the fence about the Reddit user’s behavior.
“Getting on a soapbox at what was (at least in theory) a party is not right either. Calmly give a very brief statement (personal experience, exploitative, high-pressure, recruiting, beware!). Wish the bride-to-be much happiness in her marriage. And leave,” shared one user.
Others agreed that it’s okay to feel that way about MLMs, but the way she handled it was wrong.
“I think you bled on someone who didn’t cut you. I empathize with why that is a trigger for you. That was a terribly traumatic thing to go through. Your feelings in that moment were perfectly valid. It’s how you expressed them that’s the issue,” said one other person.
What would we do?
While there seem to be reasonable explanations for the Reddit user’s anger, there are a lot of mixed emotions about her reaction to the situation overall.
Do you think that she was justified in her behavior?
