As a healthy number of you have likely experienced in your own lives, there’s little in life that tests the strength of a marriage quite like the presence of some interfering in-laws.
However, it’s important to remember that most of the time, the main reason these in-laws have the power they do is that their child is willing to put up with the harsh treatment or unreasonable expectations they have for their spouse.
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Because while some people are willing to stand up to their parents when they’re out of line, others will either try to justify actions they know to be unfair or defend them entirely.
And while it’s not always clear that this dynamic exists until a marriage is already underway, it seems that one man was accidentally given a final opportunity to rethink things.
After a recently engaged man in Canada started a new job, his future in-laws invited him to their house for a “private” conversation.
And as he explained in a Reddit post , this meeting was strange from the very beginning because it started with them asking him to leave his phone and keys in another room.
Once they sat him down, they asked about his new job and were particularly insistent that he tell them how much he made.
And when he said that wasn’t any of their business, his fiancée’s dad replied, “You’re marrying my daughter, damn right it’s my business.”
And when he told them he’s doing well financially and that there’s more to life and to marriage than money, the mother continued to press the issue.
She also said he was being disrespectful by not giving them a number as she considered this “treating them like strangers.”
And when the man tried to excuse himself, the father locked the door to the room they were in with the implication that the man couldn’t leave unless he revealed his salary.
Unsurprisingly, this prompted the man to explode on them and after reiterating that it was none of their business, he said their behavior was unacceptable, a major red flag, and something that only gold diggers engaged in.
While this led them to let him out, it also prompted the mother to call his fiancée crying and making it sound like he called them gold diggers just for asking about his job.
Yet when he told her what really happened, she still said that he had hurt them and her by calling them gold diggers and expected him to apologize.
And when he asked whether she condoned the fact that her parents illegally detained him, she deflected this and simply said that it didn’t matter to her how much money he had. She also already knew how much he made and hadn’t acted materialistically up to this point, so that wasn’t the issue for him.
As for any apology, he maintained that “I assured them I’m doing well financially and that should’ve been the end of it.”
Although the community he reached out to agreed that he wasn’t in the wrong, they also felt that he was ignoring something very worrying about his fiancée.
As one user said , “If your fiancée sides with them over this extreme breach of decency, then she’s not the one for you. The locking of the door is actually unlawful detainment—a crime in the U.S. I assume it is in Canada as well.”
Another added some possible insight, saying , “She turned it around to make you feel like you needed their forgiveness. That’s the wrong take. She may be conditioned to explain away anything they do and automatically give in.”
However, both advised against marrying his fiancée if this is the situation he’s getting himself into.
h/t: Reddit
