For every great mother and daughter-in-law relationship, there is a bad one.
And more often than not, we get to hear about the bad ones because let's face it, good mother-in-law relationship stories are boring.
Most of the time it’s about mothers doing whatever they can to back their sons no matter what they do or simply over-stepping their boundaries.
This Reddit user’s mother-in-law certainly over-stepped the boundaries when she decided to invite her son’s ex-girlfriend and baby mama along on a family holiday.
“My husband John has a six-year-old daughter, Sophie, from a previous relationship. He was with her mom Emma from when they were 14 till 19.
“I have been with my husband for almost four years and we have been married for a year with a nine-month-old daughter and I’m currently pregnant with another daughter,” the user explained in the “AmItheA****le” Reddit group.
“I love Sophie to death, I really do. I view her as my own and treat her like so which has been perfectly okay and completely encouraged by my in-laws and husband, and me and Sophie have an amazing bond.
“This Christmas we are supposed to be going to California to go visit my extended in-laws with Sophie, my daughters, my MIL, FIL, SIL, and 2 BIL, so that the girls can meet their great grandma and all of their cousins around the same age,” she wrote, adding that she was very excited about the trip that she and her husband have been planning it for a while.
That’s until her mother-in-law hit her with a bombshell while they were out grocery shopping.
“She casually mentions that Emma is planning on coming on the trip but nothing has been set in stone.
“I ask questions about living arrangements and she’s supposed to be staying with all of us in John’s great-grandma’s house. John knew nothing about this by the way,” she wrote.
“I get upset and tell her that I am not okay with that and it feels disrespectful to bring her with us to stay in the same house as John’s wife and expect us to act like a happy little family when this is not her family anymore and never will be.
“And I understand that she’s Sophie’s mom but that’s all she is, nothing more nothing less and if she’s going to bring her along then me and my two girls won’t go,” she added.
“Instantly my MIL snaps at me that I’m a selfish ungrateful b**ch and I have no right to put them in that situation and she’s as much as family as I am which I do not agree with and we just argued until she took me home and things have been tense since.”
“My husband fully agrees with me and says he wouldn’t be comfortable with her going either and he will not go either if his mom is going to let her impose on his first Christmas with his daughter.”
Now the upset woman is asking Reddit users if she is the a**hole for telling her mother-in-law that they will boycott the vacation if her husband’s baby mama went along.
Most Reddit users agreed that the situation was a bit odd.
“NTA. Tell that MIL to back off, the Ex is an Ex and you are his wife,” commented one person.
“Holy crap. NTA. It needed saying and shutting down right then and there. But I’d let John handle it from here on, though,” said another.
Someone else commented: “NTA. Nah, John’s Ex needs to recognize boundaries as well as your MIL.”