Once enough people share their marriage problems with you, you’re likely to notice some common themes pop up after a while.
And when they don’t have to do with how the couple is getting along or with money, chances are good that those problems will involve somebody’s in-laws. And while it’s true that there are many ways that in-laws can put strain on a relationship, the fastest way to make someone miserable is to intrude on their business at every available opportunity.
But as annoying as it is when they do this openly à la Marie from Everybody Loves Raymond , it can get worse in surprising ways when they undermine your boundaries in secret .
And as one woman recently learned, the most frustrating part of this kind of behavior is that the response to it often seems to attract more backlash within a family than the transgression itself does.
About a month ago, the husband of the woman we’re about to hear from experienced a car accident and has been bedridden ever since.
And as she explained in a Reddit post , caring for him after this event has been made all the more stressful by her mother-in-law’s constant micromanaging.
After begging her to take time off work, she asked for hourly updates during the first two weeks after the injury. While it sounds like this hasn’t persisted, it seems she’s still unsatisfied with the woman’s care.
As the woman said, “She visits everyday but doesn’t do anything to help, alternatively, she’d list all the things I should or shouldn’t do.”
But while the woman tried to maintain her patience after other relatives said she was worried sick for her son, that patience ran all the way out once the mother-in-law crossed a serious line.
In recent days, the woman received a call from her in which the mother-in-law berated her for not changing the husband’s sheets quickly enough for her liking. Since the husband hadn’t called her yet that day, the woman wondered how she could possibly know that.
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But soon after, her sister-in-law tipped her off to the fact the mother-in-law had secretly set a camera up in their bedroom.
Once the woman found it, she confronted the mother-in-law and told her she was no longer welcome at her house.
As you might expect, she didn’t take this well and said that if the woman stops her from seeing her son, she’ll get sick as well.
This led her family to ask the woman to reverse her decision, despite the clear invasion of privacy.
As she put it, “They said I’m taking it too personally and that I can’t blame a concerned mother for wanting to make sure her son’s fine, especially since she listed things she thought I was doing wrong.”
And her husband seems to agree, calling her vindictive and threatening to move in with his mom if she won’t let her visit.
But when she asked Reddit if she was in the wrong for banning the mother-in-law from her house, they thought it was a perfectly reasonable response to what constitutes a criminal act.
They also found it hard to believe that the husband had no knowledge of this as he claimed since he was in the room the whole time. But even if he did, they advised her to let him make good on his threat.
As one user said , “Let your husband move out then. That woman should be arrested! What kind of family is this????”
In the words of another, “Your husband just asked for a divorce. Let him stay married to his mother. There are better fish in the sea.”
h/t: Reddit | throwraOP96657
