Boundaries are pretty essential when it comes to relationships with in-laws. One woman just made a huge statement about her own personal boundaries with a smart little scheme. But it didn't go over all that well with her mother-in-law. Especially because it all blew up over Christmas dinner.
She took to Reddit to explain what had happened that left just about everyone, including her husband, angry with her. In her post, she makes it clear that her MIL is a known snoop. She also revealed that her MIL had actually walked in on her and her husband "being intimate" twice! Yikes. While her MIL really wanted a key to her home, urging that it would only be used for "emergencies," the woman was not super convinced — which makes sense, considering the intimate encounters!
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She ended up giving the nosy MIL a fake key, which seemed like either (1) a good solution to satisfy her or (2) an epic way to prove her point.
Turns out, it was the latter that happened. "Days gone by and on Christmas dinner MIL angerily 'called me out' on the fact I gave her a fake copy of the house key," the Redditor wrote. "She shamed me for doing this in front of everyone but in my defensive I asked her how she found out and she said days ago when she came over at 4 while my husband and were out."
What was the emergency that prompted her to try to use the key? Well, there wasn't one at all, which the woman was quick to point out … while everyone was sitting down to enjoy Christmas dinner.
"I reminded her 'didn't you promise you wouldn't use it unless there's an emergency? So You tried to get in when there was no emergency and you broke the promise you made to us!'" the woman shared. I mean, where is the lie?
She continued, sharing about the explosion that proceeded to take place: "She looked red in the face and the other family started staring and some even laughed at her for the face she made. She suddenly got up from her seat and rushed into the kitchen where she had a huge meltdown so loud the next door neighbors must've heard – literally I've never heard a 60+ year old woman throw a tantrum like that."
There were clearly a lot of feelings going around the room during the not-so-peaceful holiday meal. But the real issue is that now the woman's husband is enraged with her. "My husband went off on me in the car and said I lied and manipulated and humiliated and exposed his mom and said he wouldn't have let me get away with it had he known," she wrote. "We had an argument and he is demanding I apologize to his mom for my childish behavior and for ruining Christmas dinner for the whole family."
To make matters even worse, after she turned to Reddit to get some perspective on the situation, her husband got even angrier. He called her out for sharing details about his family online. Now it seems like the two are really in a terrible place.
There are definitely two distinct ways of looking at the situation. The first is pretty cut and dried: You probably shouldn't give your mother-in-law a fake key. It's usually better to be direct. However, it's also pretty clear that this woman was feeling really pushed to her limits. The MIL was being really sneaky and a bit deceitful by pushing for an "emergency" key, which everyone knew she was going to use whenever she wanted.
The bigger problem is that this marriage … well, it might just be doomed. Everyone knows when a man chooses his mother over his wife, that's a pattern that's likely to continue, and it's a huge red flag that a couple's values aren't totally aligned.
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