Family dynamics are never easy all the time, and when it comes to blended families and figuring out how to navigate by-marriage relationships, things can get even more complicated.
Basically, every woman out there who has a great relationship with her mother-in-law should take a few minutes, right now, to count her lucky stars.
This woman is not one of the lucky ones. She and her conservative mother-in-law have never seen eye-to-eye, even before OP married her son.
My mother in law “Barbara” is a conservative woman, She tends to be very critical of me, she always finds flaws in me and is always trying to “fix them”.
e.g * her response to me dying my hair was that I committed a sin by changing God’s chose hair color for me.
She once threw some of my linge saying her son shouldn’t see them because it’s sinful (we were already married btw).
During engagement period, She made a weekly reminder of me to not get preg or else she & her family will disown the baby and cut me off.
Since then, the mother-in-law has been making rude comments about OP’s appearance and forcing a “tea” on OP even though she says it makes her sick.
Recently, She started making commenting about how bad my face looks, she kept sending me boxes and boxes of this tea she recommended since she’s big on herbals and essential oils.
basically forcing me to try it although I already told her that it makes my stomach hurt and causes me to throw up.
Recently, OP attended a lunch without her husband and her mother-in-law made a comment in front of a table full of family that the tea must be working because OP’s face didn’t look so “worn and tired.”
Yeah.
Yesterday, I visited my inlaws alone for lunch since my husband “Tommy” had work and couldn’t come.
Barbara examined my face from across the table while we were eating and was like “Oh looks like the tea has FINALLY yielded some pretty good results!, your face no longer looks pale and outworn like before”.
Everyone stopped eating and stared at me. I felt so embarrassed and quite shocked that she’d call my face that.
OP had had enough and fired back that no, it was actually her husband’s “special methods” for relaxation that were doing the trick.
The family laughed, but the mother-in-law excused herself.
I leaned back and told her “no, Tommy’s actually been helping me out with the de-stress every night in his own special way” wink wink.
She must’ve figured out what I meant and so did the others because they started laughing and she literally widened her eyes in shock. She looked very offended but said nothing, Just said “excuse me” and walked out.
Later she accused OP of being rude and inappropriate and demanded an apology, but OP feels like she had to stand up for herself at some point.
Silence took over but later, Barbara called me lashing out about the disrespectful and inappropriate things I said in front of the family.
I said that I was just letting her know her tea did nothing and told her the reason why my face was “blooming”.
She shamed me for talking about her son’s intimacy and said that I clearly am taking advantage of him.
I guarantee that I wasn’t taking advantage but she kept berating me then wrapped up with a request for an apology after I offended her in front of the family.
Don’t know if I messed up here, AITA for my response?
I have a feeling I know how Reddit is going to rule on this one, but let’s check out some comments below!
The top comment asked the question on several people’s minds, which is – what is exactly is in that tea??
Image Credit: Reddit
It seems like the MIL might be taking pregnancy precautions into her own hands…
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We’re honestly all very concerned.
Image Credit: Reddit
Even if the tea is harmless, the MIL is still rude.
Image Credit: Reddit
Many commenters thought there was definitely a weird dynamic going on.
Image Credit: Reddit
This woman needs to watch her back, frankly, and stop feeling badly for beating the MIL at her own game.
What was your immediate reaction to this story? Tell us in the comments!
