Reddit Can't Decide on the Best Way to Handle This 'Possessive & Controlling' Mother-in-Law

Spending time with your mother-in-law shouldn’t be so hard over the holidays. Simply let her make the schedule, don’t spend any time with your family at all, and let her scream insults at you whenever she feels like it. What’s so difficult about that? All jokes aside, this one MIL on Reddit actually believes her son and daughter-in-law should follow these guidelines, and its mind boggling. The situation is so complicated, Redditors aren’t even exactly sure how to best handle the situation.  

The final straw was Thanksgiving, although they’ve been having problems for years, according to the woman who wrote in the “Am I The A—hole?” subreddit. She shares the story about her “possessive and controlling” mother-in-law in her post.

“My MIL is quite possessive and controlling. She doesn’t like me because I’ve taken her son away from her and all that but she’s never been honest either to me or my husband about her dislike towards me,” the mom started out writing. You gotta love passive aggressiveness!

The woman continued, “She’ll only throw some masked insults to my husband about me but to my face she’s acting like an angel and says how much she adores me and views me as her own daughter etc. Behind my back both her and my SIL say the most horrible stuff.”

Some people can be so rude! The woman goes on to say that she won’t focus on the “many horrible things” her mother-in-law has done; instead, she is complaining about “how she acts regarding us trying to balance time between families.”

Figuring out how to split the holidays is one of the most challenging parts of having a partner, even more so when kids are involved. Most parents are generally understanding (they likely went through this too!), but this mother-in-law thinks the world should revolve around her.

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