One way or another, we’ve been taught about respecting a person’s personal space – more so touching one’s person regardless of the intention. That includes one’s mother-in-law. A woman has proven that being her child’s grandparent doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want with her. So, she took to Reddit to share her experience.
In the thread called ‘Am I The A**hole’ where Redditors or people on Reddit usually consult other users about their choices in life – including the craziest decisions – a woman expecting her first child with her husband narrated her experience with her mother-in-law.
The pregnant woman admitted she never had a good relationship with her in-laws, pointing out that they didn’t respect boundaries. So, it comes as no surprise that she didn’t like them at all.
“My husband and I are expecting our first baby. We’ve [had] some ups and downs with his parents because they don’t understand boundaries, but overall it’s been really good,” she said.
While she managed to have her in-laws standing around doing what they wanted for most of their married life, it seemed they had overstepped after her mother-in-law touched her belly while carrying her child inside her womb.
The OP (Original Poster) said she felt particularly uncomfortable since she grew up in an abusive home. Because of this, it’s understandable that there was a feeling of uneasiness, most especially because it could trigger traumatic experiences.
“For some context, I (24F) come from an abusive home and I can’t stand being touched,” she said.
Before getting pregnant, this wasn’t a problem with my in-laws, but now that I’m carrying a baby, it’s been awful with my MIL and my SIL because they think they can touch my belly whenever they want to,” she added.
So, she and her husband tried to talk to them in hopes of preventing such situations from taking place again. She told them she could still touch her – just make sure they asked her for permission.
“Both my husband and I have talked to them and said that while I would rather they don’t touch me at all, I can understand this is a big thing as a family, so I would simply like being asked instead of just feeling a hand at random times, but they rarely do it, so I just move when they touch me,” she said.
But it appeared she had enough when her mother-in-law had drawn her final straw during her baby shower: when the latter touched her belly while talking to another family member.
“Now, onto the subject, a week ago my best friend threw me a baby shower and I invited my in-laws and since I don’t have any blood family left, we let them invite 10 more people which included aunts-cousins and my husband’s grandparents,” she said.
“It was an overall lovely moment, but at one time, I was sitting eating cake while my MIL talked with my FIL’s sister, and while telling her something about the baby, she put her hand in my belly and idk, I just didn’t like it,” she said.
Seemingly fed up, she publicly humiliated her mother-in-law in front of her father-in-law’s sister – and the former didn’t like it!
“So I took her hand, removed it and said “No, no, you know I’ve told you not to touch without asking first. You know how to ask first, do you? It’s easy!” with the most condescending voice I had. Both my MIL and my FIL’s sister looked at me shocked, and then my FIL’s sister laughed but my MIL got red in the face,” she said.
Following the incident, her mother-in-law reprimanded her, telling her it was uncalled for. She also compared her mother-in-law’s actions to that of a kid, as the latter still did what she did despite asking her several times not to do it without asking her first.
“When it was done, my MIL approached me and said that what I did wasn’t nice and she just “slipped” so I didn’t have to treat her like a kid. I just smiled and said that she touching me after being asked a million times not to was a kid behavior, and I just called her out on that,” she said.
Her father-in-law then called up her husband and told him they should both apologize to her. But she refused. So, she was referred to as an “a**h*le”
“She left, very sad, and when we got home, my FIL called my husband and said he would love for both of us to apologize to each other, but I said no. So he called me an AH,” she said.
You know what they say, never mess with a pregnant woman – and the unfortunate encounter between the woman and her mother-in-law proved exactly why!
