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It isn’t uncommon for people to have a strained relationship with their mothers-in-law. And if you’ve consumed enough pop culture and articles on this site, you might even think that it is the norm.
These stories we’ve collected from Reddit may just reinforce the monster-in-law stereotype. They all have varying levels of toxicity, from the typical MIL-related drama to ones that are so unhinged, you may not believe they are real.
If you feel like sharing your own stories, you can very much do so in the comments below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
She asked me if my dad was really d**d or my mom just didn’t know who he was so that’s what we say. My parents were married and he d**d traumatically in front of me on Thanksgiving….
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#2
This is wild but my MIL is still mad that I cheated on her son. She saw me at a cafe with a guy who I was “all over.” She didn’t come over to call me out. She called my husband (then boyfriend) he didn’t answer. We go to visit and then she finds out he got a drastic hair cut. I was cheating on her son with her son. She’s still mad after 20 years.
#3
At this point, I'd been dealing with ideopathic infertility for about 12-13 years. She told me that I was infertile because Jesus knew I was a terrible person who would be an awful mother - it was my punishment.
She died. I finally got pregnant like 2 months later.
#4
My mom died 6 years ago and it was the hardest thing I've ever gone through.
The night after MIL disowned my husband and made him come get everything he still had left at her house, she got my number from the schedule at our job and texted me:
"You watched your mom d*e and didn't do anything to save her. Get over it already. She is burning in Hell for eternity and someday you will be there also. You thought I was mean before, you haven't seen anything yet. You don't know me at all"
We all shared a workplace and my husband is an assistant manager, so he promptly texted his higher-ups with the screenshot and requested she be fired. They were all on board, especially since the last part of her message qualified as making threats against another employee. So they confronted her the next day, and she tried to deny ever texting me at all until our boss pulled out a printed copy of the message. She then started ranting and raving about how I was the devil, how she was going to "get that b***h" (me), and how she should have aborted my husband.
That was 3 months ago, and it has been and will be permanent NC from both of us.
#5
My MIL asked me why I give my infant daughter stale milk (I pumped and refrigerated because she refused to latch after 3m) instead of fresh milk from the source like I was some cow. And she continued to ask till I was more than a year postpartum.
I go to therapy now, both couples and individual. Both therapists were shocked when I told them.
#6
My husband was away on training for 5 weeks. She knew my neighbours and they mentioned they hadn’t seen me in a while. I’m a homebody so I’m typically not in and out or hanging around outside. She texted me to ask where I’ve been sleeping while her son’s been gone. I’ve been incredibly low contact ever since that single text.
#7
I have few but few there is no forgiveness for.
My son passed away with my preterm and 2 days later she is smiling and making jokes. She once said whatever happens it happens for good , we wouldn’t want him nicy and then d*e .
She repeated many times in public places that I shouldn’t try to have kids just have dogs and be happy
My daughter was my 5 th pregnancy but first one could have made home safe and at 12 weeks right before my cerclage she said IF IT HAS TO HAPPEN IT SHOULD HAPPEN NOW SO IT WILL HURT LESS meaning miscarriage.
I was 7 days PP AND she said if i were to divorce my husband they will get custody of my daughter because her friends husband is known lawyer.
#8
Oooh which one should I pick? The time when my twins had been out of NICU for 9 weeks and she had me play photographer to take her family photos of her, my twins and my husband….. and then when I raised it that I was uncomfortable with this set up, she said “well yes, I do expect you to stand aside when I’m with my son and his babies”. Or possibly the time where because I gained weight postpartum from a UK 8 to a UK 12, she bought me a UK size 22 top at Christmas and when I opened it she smiled the biggest smile and said “well I know you gained a lot of weight!” Yeah not that much Susan, Jesus Christ.
#9
Not the most unhinged but among the funniest, husband and I invited her over to tell her we had eloped. When he started off by saying "mom, we-" she jumped up and immediately screamed "YOU CAN'T BE PREGNANT. YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME I'M TOO YOUNG TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!"
.....she was 60.
#11
I got discharged from the hospital on the 4th day of my C section, when I came home, my MIL asked me why my face was looking bad. When I said I was in pain, she said C-section only pains for 3 days, why was I still in pain! Then she went ahead to peek at my milk while I was pumping and said "you don't have any milk supply".
#12
My mom passed away right after I had my baby. I returned from burying my mom, to my MIL excitedly gifting me milestone items for all of the upcoming holidays. She had purchased a first holiday outfit for each, plus a first Christmas ornament. She didn’t do a darn thing to acknowledge my mom’s passing, she was too busy deciding what baby was going to wear for every upcoming holiday.
#13
I mean she’s said lots of mean and stupid a*s things, but my personal favorite is that she said I’m not her family and screamed it to me in front of my children, then proceeded a few months later to ask my husband to ask if he was even happy (that she knows he “”loves”” me but am I really what he wants) with me, and that I should let him steal my children and bring them to her. It’s moreso 6 years of emotional a***e which lead to NC.
Her husband (husband’s step father) also said that I’m a ‘f*****g b***h’ and ‘pathetic’ because I wanted to spend Mother’s Day with my child, 1 month after a traumatic 12+5 pregnancy loss, and not my husbands mother. During which that pregnancy I asked her NOT to tell anyone and she told a room full of people I didn’t know, rubbing my belly, lost the baby 2 weeks later. Strongly strongly dislike that b***h.
#14
" you can always get an abortion" when we told her i was pregnant
" Just go and do us all a favour and d*e already"
There's been many others through the years.
#15
My MIL is an attention hog and the ultimate main character syndrome case. She cut into my father/daughter dance at our wedding. Walked right through the dance floor and tried to drag my husband onto the dance floor. BTW the song was “Daddy” by Beyoncé. When she was confronted by my friends/ family and a couple of her own about it she tried to blame everyone under the sun except herself. She’s contradicted herself multiple times with her lies. One story was she was told it was their time to dance. When that didn’t work she switched to “the song said Daddy, so I know it obviously wasn’t meant for our time to dance” and tried to blame our planner. Everyone else at her table that heard the same conversation told her that that never happened.
After speaking with DH, we agreed that from then on she gets a back seat to every milestone moment so she can’t make it about her. She often complains why. Every time she complains I bring up the father daughter dance. So far she’s taken a back seat to my graduation, DH’s graduation, the last to know about our pregnancy, and baby’s gender. Our baby shower has been planned and everything, but she won’t know the details until we sent out invitations to everyone else. We close on our first house in a week. She won’t know until after we move in.
#17
My daughter was 5 when we had my future MIL over for dinner so that we could all meet and be comfortable before my boyfriend and I got married. My daughter was excited about it because in her mind, she was getting a new Grandma! She asked my future MIL excitedly "are you my new Grandma!?" and she replied that no..she was not my child's grandma at all and to please call her Mrs. Davis. The look on my child's face was heartbreaking.
#18
We had a miscarriage while living under her roof and were under a great deal of stress. Those were the worst few weeks of our lives. She decided to fabricate a story and told everyone that I had an abortion. The only reason I found out was because my FIL (they’re divorced) showed me and my husband the messages she was sending him about our so called “abortion” and how she was going to “ruin me.”.
#19
When her son and I were moving together we rented an apartment that was our dream apartment because it was vintage looking and the first thing she said when she came by was how ugly and outdated it was and that she couldnt believe her son was going to be living like this, i was shocked.
#20
So many options but one of my favourites was when she said "it's amazing they make swimsuits in your size. You're just *so brave* to wear it, but it looks... good..." She really let the thin veneer of nearly- compliment slip with that one. But of course "she didn't mean it like that" as always. B***h.
#21
I had just gotten engaged to her son. We had only been together a few months at the time. We were 21. Lol dumb yes. But STILL together btw, 25 years later. Anyway, she yelled hysterically, ran to the bathroom, came back begging him not to ruin his life. And I'm still here 😎 And his life is just fine lol.
#22
She was a b***h for most of my pregnancy but I was 2 weeks post partum after a traumatic birth that left me so injured I couldn’t even stand or walk on my own (11 month pp now and still dealing with pain from it), and was also dealing with back to back mastitis causing me extreme illness. Literally just trying to survive and in so much discomfort and pain. She would not stop relentlessly harassing tf out my husband and I (even though we begged and begged to please stop because she was putting an extreme amount of unnecessary stress on us and trying so hard to make us feel like terrible parents) about our choice to vaccinate our infant and that if she wouldn’t get vaccinated with the huge outbreak of measles happening, that she would have to wait until our baby is protected to meet her.
When she refused to stop harassing us, I sent a text being so vulnerable trying desperately to get her to have an ounce of empathy and be a girls girl. I told her how traumatic my birth was, how much pain I was in, how I was getting absolutely zero sleep, how ill I was from back to back mastitis that worsens with stress and that the stress I was feeling was immense and I simply wanted to enjoy the very short amount of time with my newborn I had before she wasn’t a newborn anymore as well as my husband having to return to work very early pp was extremely stressful to me and asked if she could please at least just give us the respect of backing off FOR NOW and sharing her thoughts later. She of course did not back off and I was losing my sanity and an absurd amount of hair at this point. My husband became very worried I was going to develop PPD from this and begged his mom to please stop right now and we could come back to this at a later date because he’s worried I will get PPD with all of the stress.
Of course she became defensive af, not a shred of empathy and proceeded to say it was ridiculous and “not fair” that I was saying mastitis was her fault (W*F??) and then sent a hugggge paragraph to him with capital letters going on and on about how controlling I am and that she knows sometimes in marriage you have to make compromises but he was going to have a very long road ahead of him if he was going to continue dealing with me act like this and told him I was THREATENING POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION!!! amongst many other nasty things. That was the moment I really gave up on her because that’s truly evil, disgusting and inappropriate behaviour. Going behind my back to talk s**t to my husband after everything I just told you so nicely I was struggling with? Ya get bent b***h.
#23
On her deathbed said, “you know your daughter is a brat, don’t you?” She was my daughter before marriage, and my MIL witnessed one episode when my daughter was about 8 where she had a temper tantrum and I sent her outside to sit in the car until she calmed herself down, which she did. This was almost 10 years before my MIL died and although my daughter loved her and she seemed to love my daughter, this is the one memory she held onto.
#24
"She should abort that, I can't afford another one" about my last born who is a year a day younger then his brother. Then the whole family was no where to be found because I wouldn't let her anymore then a distance view of him for the first months of his life.
#25
JNMIL made photo Christmas cards with her two grandchildren and two great grandchildren and excluded our child. And yes, our child is my husband/her son's biological child.
#26
It wasn’t to me. It was to my 5 yo (at the time) medically complex, non-verbal, special needs child. She looked at my baby girl and said “______, I wish you didn’t have so many problems.”.
#27
I am a recovering alcoholic. Been sober since 2023. Took my MIL to our kid’s soccer game, (I was months sober at this time), she pulls out one those Jägermeister bags the big bottles come in and says, you want a swig!? My heart just sank. I felt my whole body freeze. And then she pulled out her bottle of water! Like are you for real!? Did she plan on doing that to me? Of course she did. It made me sick thinking about it the rest of that day. I guess it still does. I haven’t thought about it much the last three years. My expectations are very low when it comes to her.
#28
She told me I shouldve aborted my youngest, and threatened that she could get my kids taken away like that *with a finger snap* oh and now she tries to spoil my youngest and acts like it was a loving pregnancy and she was so excited for him to get here.
#29
Oh boy let me pluck one off of my list….
I had just had a miscarriage the day before, and also had to have a pre cancerous mole removed on my leg. She decided to lecture me on my toddlers behavior at the restaurant (where my miscarriage began) and then grill me on whether I was socializing them enough.
#30
I couldn’t breathe the entire summer - I had hypoxia from long covid. She decides that’s the time to do a family photo for the first time. And it just had to be then. Couldn’t wait a few months.
Kept asking if I’d be coming - “no, I’m on oxygen constantly, and so dizzy I can barely walk - and won’t be making it…any chance you’ll reschedule?” Ofc not.
That photo still plays on their tv photo screen in their house to this day. Suffice it to say she has zero empathy for my condition. So when it comes to her and her “im the victim rhetoric” i really struggle to find empathy.
#31
All of this started simply because we gave her boundaries. I never said anything to her directly my husband is the one who communicates with her. But she still blamed everything on me because she can’t accept that her own son finally told her no. She’s just used to him always saying yes.
These are some of the things she’s said about me:
• “You didn’t have a mother beside you, that’s why you’re like this.” I was raised by my grandmother — the most loving, selfless person I’ve ever known.
• “You’re unfit to be a mother. Your son needs his grandparents, not you.”
• “If your grandma asked to stay in your house, you’d say yes.” Of course I would — she was nothing like her. And she passed away in 2021.
• “If your husband wasn’t good-looking or a citizen, would you even love him?”
• “If anything happens to your husband, how would you even pay the mortgage? You’d have to beg your family and friends.”
There’s more, but honestly I’ve forgotten half of it because it was that ridiculous. These are the main comments that made me realize I can never forgive her.
#32
Not said to me, but when my husband and I were dating and I had stayed the night at their house (he was 20 and living at home while working and in college), I woke up to his phone vibrating, being blown up with texts. Naturally I just look to see who it is and he had his message settings set to where it would display the text on the lock screen and see a message from his mom “I know you love her so I won’t say anything”. I ofc woke him up and told him she was upset about something…yall, this woman was mad that I walked in front of the tv on the way to the kitchen..literally the only path to the kitchen. Did she expect me to scale the furniture? That’s when I realized she would make up reasons to try and convince my husband that i was “disrespectful” aka not good enough for him. I also confided in her about my hair loss only for her friend to call me a “bald-headed b***h” during an argument. A friend that had never met me- so who else would have told her about my hair.
#33
Late to the game, but I got one! 😆
Had an argument with her a while back. It started about something rather dumb - I had asked her to come empty handed for her visit (she’s a thrift store shopaholic and drags in so much stuff, I’m not always in the mood to spend time humoring her, sifting through a pile of new goods). She showed up with bags. I said “did you get my text?” She confirmed, and with a smirk admitted that she decided to bring some things anyway. She’s the kind of person who will use excuses like “well, you know me, I can’t show up empty handed! Hahaha” to just do what she wants.
I express my disappointment with her lack of respecting my request, so she’s now irritated.
Back story: in her mind, I should go work full-time while she watches our kids. That’s not happening because I don’t trust her like that.
So today, she’s doing a little “watching my baby” while I watch them both, and I’m doing chores and cleaning.
She’s holding it against me heavily, and believes that I’m the obstacle preventing her from helping me be a breadwinner. We haven’t talked about it for a while, but I know.
Crucial detail: DH and I are on the same page about her lacking the ability to be our full-time childcare solution.
Irked by the today’s issue, she brings it up again later that day, and I again call her out for just refusing to listen to people, which is a general character trait of hers.
Then, it somehow spirals into her asking - and also, why she’s not watching baby every day, from 8am till 3pm, like we discussed?
This was never agreed on, it’s only in her mind that this should happen.
What I have asked her many times, is to come help me starting around 8am, because morning are best for getting stuff done. She’s never able to, always has other stuff going on, or just frazzled and late.
That’s fine - whatever, I respected that it was just not something she could do and eventually stopped asking.
To now have her angrily tell me she should watch baby all day by herself from 8am onwards, cracked me up sarcastically. I point out I’ve asked her many times to show up at 8, and she just can’t do it!?
She rolls her eyes at me, and says (this is THE THING) : Well, I didn’t mean 8am literally!!
That’s when I lost it a little - “really, MIL? Not literally? So your “8am” which you’re making a huge stink about now is really what - 9, 10, 11? Well, good thing we don’t depend on you for our childcare, shall I just go into work at random times that aren’t “literally”?
That comment and her overall arrogance about it still make me look at her differently. My husband intervened telling us to stop, and the argument was never cleared up. (Weird.)
We are being civil (it’s been a year or so) but I don’t think our relationship will ever recover.
On the other hand, it was the final straw of many W*F moments, so 🤷♀️ it’s not like it was brilliant before.
#36
Told me that we should sign over custody of our son to her so she could get more social security money.....not today Satan, not today.
#37
Mine kept letting herself into our flat (we were renting an apartment from her), stole all our booze, and her takeaway when we complained was that she had taken the alcohol so she replaced it (no, letting yourself in without warning and trying to k**l yourself with our booze was the issue).
We paid to renovate the bathroom (in our flat, that we were renting from her). It was a pretty big job for a bathroom (it was NASTY), and it cost a lot for us at the time. She raised our rent because "well, it is worth more now because of the fixed up bathroom!". We told her she could pay for the renos or ask for higher rent, not both. She cried.
MIL got it in her head that as another woman, I would be a great shoulder to cry on. After the SECOND time she called me at work to complain about my husband (her son), I had to tell her that I was not going to listen to her complain about my spouse, and if she wanted to vent she should find a therapist. I had to block her number on my work phone for a while after that one.
I actually mostly got along with her, to be honest. She was a deeply unhappy woman, but she tried to be kind in her own way.
#38
Well
When we got engaged she wanted FIL to walk me down the isle"cause he never had that opportunity with their own daughter"she eloped at 18.
Went behind my back to another catering company for our wedding cause SHE didn't like the food choices(we were paying for our own wedding.Also she and her sisters planned out the wedding programme and seating WITHOUT consulting me and my husband and had invited about 20 extra people that we both didn't even know!
Insulted my decor and furniture when we moved into our house.Called it cheap looking.Tried to get involved in any decisions or plans we had.
Wanted us to celebrate our wedding anniversary with her side of the family.
When i found out i was pregnant she was pissed,ignored me,never checked up but as soon as the time got closer to me giving birth she literally came my house with a list of"rules"for MY BABY.Demanded she be fully informed cause its my first baby and "i won't know what to do"(i was 34,a nurse with paediatric experience)She also threw a fit with her sisters when we requested no visitors for two weeks.I was BASHED in their family group chat
Demanded we give our daughter's middle name her first name"cause she named her daughter after Her MIL.
Would regularly come to my house while husband is at work and make nasty passive aggressive comments on my parenting skills and act like she knows my baby better than me.
Commented how my daughter is so light skinned but everyone in her family has darker skin(my husband heard the comment and chewed her out)
We are NC with them all and its been pure bliss thank GOD!
#39
In my first trimester I was having bad anxiety around miscarriages. We made the mistake of telling her early (like 6 weeks) and within a week she was threatening to tell other people the news because “we were making her lie to people” . We just hadn’t had our first scan yet and wanted to wait. She also told me that it would be a good thing if I had a miscarriage because “it just means something was wrong with the baby”
In my second trimester I was still really tired and really busy at work . She came over to babysit my son and asked what I wanted him to have for lunch. I had some pasta in the fridge and told her to heat up some frozen meatballs to go with it. She ignored that requested and made him some scrambled eggs instead which I didn’t really care . But then she invited some of her friends over to my house without asking me and when they got here I heard her talking c**p about me to them about how I asked her to feed him meatballs.
Now I’m in my third trimester and we are no longer speaking because she decided to start potty training my 18 month old son without asking me and after I had told her we were waiting until he was a little older . I asked her to please stop and she had a snippy, controlling condescending reply when I asked her to stop so I put her in her place and set some boundaries and she didn’t like that very much. The next night she drove to my house while drinking and flipped out on my husband in the yard because we “disrespected “ her
She is really fun.
#40
I moved out of the city bc i wanted to grow my family. She told me as a mother i made a wrong decision moving to the suburbs.As a mother i need to make better decisions. lol. Well i did grow my family. So there’s that. Another time…The day my uncle died i booked a flight to go to el salvador for the funeral. She threw a tantrum. She was supposed to watch my child. Instead when my mom went to drop off my son. She went off on my mom. My mom’s brother is the one that passed. So i decided to cancel my flight and not go. My psycho MIL said i’m happy you didn’t go. She’s a psychotic narcissist. .
#41
Three months after my stroke while I was still needing some help and used a walker my Mil told me to just get over it already.
#42
My first husband kept going on and on about how much he missed his mom’s chicken and dumplings. When we went to visit her I asked for the recipe. When we got home and I made it for him he said there was something wrong and to ask his mom for some pointers. She said she intentionally gave me the “quick/easy version” so hers would always be better than mine and he would always have to come home to her so she could give him what he really wanted. The enmeshment was deep with those two. 🤮.
#43
My FIL spent the entire first year+ of my marriage implying I needed to get pregnant immediately. There was one time I was soliciting Halloween costume ideas and any time someone suggested a character, he'd reply saying "pregnant [insert character here]." About a year and a half after we got married we went to my spouse's home country. We were all sitting chatting with one of my spouse's good friends who hadn't seen my spouse since before our wedding and when he asked when we were going to have kids, my FIL jumped in and said "I tell (my name) that I'm too young to have grandkids all the time." I was fuming. It absolutely wrecked our relationship.
#44
We were at a big family event with a ton of people at a big long table, maybe like 25-30 people. At the end of the dinner the table got quiet and everyone was kind of listening to a conversation between my MIL and myself about my chronic illness and just my journey with chronic kidney disease.
At one point in the conversation I mentioned how I had to do a round of steroids several months before I met my husband and it meant so much much to me that he loved me so much and found me to be so beautiful even though I had recently gained a bunch of prednisone weight. And she slams both hands on the table and then clutches her palm to her chest while letting out a huge dramatic gasp and goes “WOW! I’m just so relieved to find out your weight issues are due to outside forces and I won’t ever have to worry about you passing them down to my grandchildren. These thoughts were keeping me up at night. A hereditary propensity to be fat is just such a burden to bear. They would feel so out of place in our family if they were bigger and I don’t wish that for them. I’m sure you’ve already experienced feeling different due to this. We all care about being fit and healthy in our family and I’d hate to see MY grandchildren struggle due to something that was passed down and no fault of their own”. The way the entire table gasped in unison was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life. The room was just THICK with the cringiest most uncomfortable silence. It was brutal.
EDIT: not that it matters, but just to put into perspective how delusional she is. I was 150lbs at the time. I am now 175lbs pregnant with twins and she makes a comment about how massive I am every chance she gets.
#46
There’s a lot, but my fav is her grabbing and squeezing my b***s to “make sure” there isn’t milk in there and I wasn’t “lying” about my inability to breastfeed. TBH i was horrified bc my first child passed away trying to breastfeed, I wasn’t gonna do it again if there was milk or not. I threatened to sue her for harassment.
#47
Oh nothing just her belly is not growing is she even pregnant or not and yeah one more after my cousin's wedding I stayed one day extra to my mother's place because of vaccination my son had fever so she said we don't care for you just come give us over grandchild and leave, so nothing just usual stuff and all.
#48
She made it a point to tell me that my husband's ex was like a daughter to her. No context - she just randomly said it when we were alone - I assume just to try to hurt me.
#49
My favorite….hubby and I were older. We had known each other for a long time, so we dated very briefly before marrying. About a year and a half after our marriage (together about 2 years), BIL got engaged. She pulled out a bottle of champagne that she “had for 3 years with nothing to celebrate.”
“I mean…how often does your son get engaged?”.
#50
When my brother died mine told my husband
“Good thing its her family, and not yours. That way it doesn’t hurt.”.
#51
Mine told me while I was pregnant about to pop mind you that drinking raspberry leaf tea was going to cause me to bleed out during birth and d*e 🙃🙃.
#52
After the idk what number miscarriage, she looked at me and said "*sigh* Some women just aren't meant to be mothers. Maybe that's why you can't keep a pregnancy."
She didn't like too well when I said if that's true, why did she have kids seeing as she's a s**t mother.
#53
My MIL likes to tell people who have had miscarriages that she also had a miscarriage and it helped her to think that something was wrong with baby and it was “nature’s way of taking care of it”.
My SIL had 3 miscarriages and I always wondered if she said this to her and that’s why she hates her lol.
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