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I’m so blessed; my beautiful MIL was a genuine joy to be around. She quietly loved us without judgement or frustration, and she never inserted herself in our problems. Sadly, she died in 2022, but the years I had with her were so loving. I truly cannot fathom how hard it is to not have that experience.
There is nothing more frustrating than mothers-in-law who can’t respect boundaries. There is a well documented sense of entitlement from older generations that seems to permeate several households. It can be really hard to navigate, especially when your partner isn’t as aware of it as you are.
One woman on Reddit recently lamented that her MIL crossed the line when she offered to help her watch her dog post-surgery. The pup needed someone to sit there to help it get outside for the bathroom and she volunteered happily.
Posts from the motherinlawsfromhell
community on Reddit
“Well she must have gotten bored and decided to let herself into our bedroom, despite the door being closed. I didn’t realize until the next day when I was getting ready for work and found all my underwear and jewelry in different locations within my dresser,” she stated.
It upset her so much she had a full-blown panic attack.
The MIL was annoyed she didn’t “thank her” for the help when she was confronted. She messaged the woman a lengthy text and didn’t apologize but rather justified her actions.
People in the Reddit thread were furious on her behalf.
“For normal people when someone tells you that you have overstepped a boundary, you don’t reply, ‘I was just being wonderful and you should thank me,’ you instead say, ‘I am sorry I see that it was a huge boundary violation, how can I make it up to you,'” wrote one person. “She wasn’t being helpful, she was saying that you don’t know how to take care of your own belongings, and you need to be helped out like a child. Total disrespect. I hope your takeaway from this is that she has no idea what normal is and you need to set clear, concise boundaries, especially never letting her be alone in your house again. She will only be sneakier in her attempts to snoop in the future.”
“My husband and I went away for a weekend two weeks ago, MIL came to watch kiddo,” offered another commenter. “I’ve suspected she’s been through my things before so I set up a camera. Sure as [expletive], the night we left, she was in there looking through drawers, under the bed, in the closet. My husband called her out and told her she was caught. Never said a word to us when we got back and left promptly the next morning. She is no longer welcomed here.”
In a world full of women like this, I beg of you current and future MILs, be like mine was.
