Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask you what is the worst thing your MIL has done or said to you?

420 replies

IndigoIsMyFavouriteColour · 21/11/2025 18:25

I’ll start. We lost a baby at 25 weeks pregnant, a little girl, the whole situation was awful. 6 months later I was pregnant with a little boy and we waited until 20+ weeks to tell anyone about him because we were nervous (understandably).

We phoned MIL on speaker phone to tell her our happy news about the new baby (we already had a son) and her first response was ‘well when am I going to get some granddaughters?’

There are many more examples but this really took the biscuit

OP posts:
Grapewrath · 22/11/2025 18:50

I hate my mil snd I haven’t spoken to her in 10 years.
Her husband was the one with most of the offensive comments. Often he made rude comments about my weight (I’m a size 8 not that it matters) and racist, sexist remarks. He’s dead now, praise be but MIl sat and condoned everything he said over the years, so she can fuck off too.
OH talks to her superficially and my kids are polite if they see her but non of us like her .

HandmadeNanna · 22/11/2025 18:44

IndigoIsMyFavouriteColour · 21/11/2025 18:25

I’ll start. We lost a baby at 25 weeks pregnant, a little girl, the whole situation was awful. 6 months later I was pregnant with a little boy and we waited until 20+ weeks to tell anyone about him because we were nervous (understandably).

We phoned MIL on speaker phone to tell her our happy news about the new baby (we already had a son) and her first response was ‘well when am I going to get some granddaughters?’

There are many more examples but this really took the biscuit

Similar situation. Been married for 7 years. Went to see pil to tell them expecting after several losses, to be told their daughter, who had recently got married, should have had the first grandchild. I produced a girl, which was also wrong as they wanted a Grandson to carry on the family name. I apparently then went on deliberately to have 2 more girls. Sil had 3 boys. After number 3 she was told by pil that they were disappointed as they wanted a Granddaughter.

Mil wanted a knitting bag for Christmas. Ones in the shop were tacky and too small so I bought fabric in her favourite colour, made a knitting bag, fully lined, French seams so no raw edges. Cosg much more than shop one.
Should have bought a nasty shop made one - "is that all you think of me, to give me something cheap and homemade " . Needless to say, I never made her anything else and made her ds do present shopping for them in future.
Fortunately, divorced him and happily married with step family who love my homemade gifts.

TheignT · 22/11/2025 18:37

Oh I forgot when we told her I was pregnant she made sort of angry growling noises, went in the kitchen and started smashing dishes.

TheignT · 22/11/2025 18:34

Called me it as in "does it want a cup of tea". Told my husband, In front of me, that I was having an affair, I wasn't. In front of teenage sons asked me if her having my husband circumcised as a baby had affected our sex life. When she saw our beautiful newborn baby for the first time she said, "what a shame about her hair."

She was a nightmare.

NormasArse · 22/11/2025 18:33

Bloody hell, OP- she wouldn’t be anywhere near my baby after that 😔.

I’ve been lucky enough to be blessed with two wonderful MILs (but only one wonderful DH 😂). I’m trying to do the same for my DILs.

InLawAgain · 22/11/2025 18:28

I’m upset that she has made some of the happiest times of my life worse, but it’s unbearable that she has made the hardest times of my life even harder. I’ll never forgive her

Same way I feel about my MIL

Alot of the MIL's mentioned seem very against breastfeeding? What is the main reason for this?
My MIL came into my bedroom uninvited trying to pressure me to stop breastfeeding while I was breastfeeding. Then for the first few months she asked my DH almost every day if I had stopped breastfeeding yet.

Theroadnottravelled · 22/11/2025 18:23

Some of these are awful!! My MIL is very passive aggressive. She’ll make little comments but never out and out horrible. Like we could save money if I didn’t buy wine or drink alcohol (one bottle a week, supermarket cheap plonk, she’s teetotal) or that it’s cruel to put kids in nursery as they should be with their mother (father..hello??) when they know we have no choice. Or buy stuff that’s clearly 2 sizes too small. Urgh. I ‘let her’ as can’t be bothered to rise to it.

realsavagelike · 22/11/2025 18:11

I was having a nervous breakdown. Ex MIL, her voice cracking with emotion, saying "I just can't stand seeing (ex) so upset". He was upset because his domestic appliance was malfunctioning and it was inconveniencing him.
I am one of 3 siblings. Ex MIL saying out of nowhere "I always say you bring up two and drag up three". Pretty mild compared to a lot of other examples, but just such a smug, revolting attitude.

KJD2025 · 22/11/2025 18:11

My MIL sounds similar, we lost our first baby late too, 20 weeks and her first comment was ‘’what am I going to do with the christening cake I’ve baked now then’’..she had baked a replica of our wedding cake tier, never even asked us and made our baby loss all about her. She then arrived at the birth of my daughter, who was my second pregnancy uninvited and threw the curtains back around the bed and just walked in (I was being induced and was very scared because of losing my first baby). She also didn’t like my wedding flowers (the colours didn’t match with her outfit) so actually went into the florist and asked to have her button hole flower changed behind my back. The florist said it was bizarre!
i tolerate her, because she is the mother of my lovely DH (and he does too) but we avoid her. Life is too short for fall outs but also too short for allowing her to get too close and cause upset. We’ve been married 23 years and I’m really chill about her now (didn’t use to be tho!!).

JungAtHeart · 22/11/2025 18:04

When I was pregnant with DD1, exMIL asked if I was aware that I could have a ‘black baby’. ExH is dual heritage. I explained that I was aware of genetic possibilities … she said, ‘well don’t worry, we’ll love it anyway’ 😳

Sennelier1 · 22/11/2025 18:01

My PiL both were strongly against having more than one child. Of course when he was still living with them my DH was influenced by them, they spoke very adamant about people having more than one or even....imagine....a large family 🥺 But once our little girl was born he changed his mind and was very much in favour of having a second baby. So when our little boy was on the way we proudly told our parents. MiL reaction : I should've known ýóú would "need to have one more". I could've killed her.

UninitendedShark · 22/11/2025 17:59

Went to a solicitor to find out what her rights were with regards to her having custody of the baby I was 25 weeks pregnant with. Our situation was ten years together, professional couple with own home, good finances and no ‘issues’. Was outraged when solicitor told her she had no rights.

JudgeJ · 22/11/2025 17:48

Talkingtomyhouseplants · 21/11/2025 22:06

I love my MIL but she disappointed me deeply this year when BILs gf was trying to bully me, I told her about it to try and get some support as it was making family events unbearable and she said she “didn’t want to take sides”

That's a good response, she only had your version of events so keeping out of it was the best solution.

Beekman · 22/11/2025 17:48

My MIL said, very loudly, at her daughter’s wedding “I’ll give it 5 years”. She is constantly complaining about same daughter’s husband, saying his plan is “to take her away from her family” and calling him a bastard. He cannot do right on her eyes. His biggest crime was apparently asking her to use a coaster for her tea and after that, she never visited her daughter again. She has always been nice to my face but I’m sure she says similar things about me behind my back. Once she phoned me and it went to voicemail and unbeknownst to her, it recording her saying “she never answers the fucking phone” and I deleted it before I had to listen to any more.

The kids grew up in a different country to her and I think she blames me, even though we moved for her son’s job. We visited her twice a year but never stayed with her, always my parents, because her house was cold and absolutely full of crap as she is a hoarder. She has always resented us for this but honestly there wasn’t a bed in her entire large house that wasn’t covered in crap. She visited us a few times a year but no longer accepts the invitations.

Overall, she is not a very nice person and had few friends and has fallen out with everyone else in her family except her son and daughter. We will always keep trying with her but sometimes I do wonder why we bother.

Makingadecision · 22/11/2025 17:42

@RessicaJabbitIve never ever done those things to my Dil. But she’s set against me and my family and my ds is virtually cut off from us. My other Dil is lovely and we see her and my ds (and they asked to live with us for a while when they renovated their house) so I know I can’t be that bad as a mil. But some Dil can be hurtful too and I just want people to remember that if you have a son he is likely to be influenced by his partner. And often that doesn’t work out well for the son’s parents as many of my friends will testify.

ReleaseTheDucksOfWar · 22/11/2025 17:38

TheaBrandt1 · 22/11/2025 07:18

Mine has said some things so bad they are hilarious but to be fair she is from a very blunt culture. Also she says those things to everyone so I know it’s not personal! She spectacularly puts her foot in it with teens too.

Her particular classic was explaining how they were going to live abroad for a few years as “there’s nothing to keep us in England”. Dh and his brother and our new baby weren’t factored in!

She's Dutch?

My Dutch MiL has a reputation for bluntness even among the Dutch. It's taken a lot if getting used to.

Rotterdammers are even worse though.

RessicaJabbit · 22/11/2025 17:14

Makingadecision · 21/11/2025 23:07

Just remember all of you who have so sons, one day you’ll be a mil. You’ll try your best but it won’t be good enough and while her own mum can make mistakes and be forgiven you never will be treated the same way. Just think how it would be if you could no longer see your ds.

Well, we won't be spiteful, hateful and bullying to our DILs, we won't making vile comments about them and to them, nor will we reject, ignore , undermine and exclude them, nor will we wish them unwell or blame them for miscarriages, ill health and disability.... So we won't have those issues at all!

Cremefraicheeee · 22/11/2025 16:59

Announced the birth of my first child on Facebook, despite being asked not to post on social media (as not all of my family have it and we wanted to speak to people ourselves first!) whilst I was in ICU after losing 5 litres of blood and my heart stopping during my c section and it was still touch and go whether I would survive. Went on to make it all about her. I haven't spoken to her in 7 years.

EmeraldSloth · 22/11/2025 15:25

Figcherry · 22/11/2025 11:33

You were very foolish.
On the two occasions I’ve had an upset friend/sibling who has split with their dp I’ve remained firmly neutral.
My ds was also criticising his dw one day and I pointed out all her qualities.

Agree with this.

In the same way as when my DH needs to vent his parents, I just let him get out what he needs to and focus on supporting him. No need for me to join in and attack his parents.

Blueuggboots · 22/11/2025 15:12

I’m really lucky that my MIL is great! Don’t get me wrong, we occasionally have a misunderstanding, but we (me, DS and DP, her daughter) live in the same house and 99.9% of the time. We get on really well.

AGirlCalledJohnny · 22/11/2025 14:53

The list is long and egregious, but there’s one incident which was so passive agressively rude, it entered family lore. I’m pretty decent home cook, nothing fancy, but good. My MIL is a terrible cook (but a great baker!). She would get visibly irked when anyone, but especially FIL and BIL, would rave about it. Everyone was in town for one of the DC’s christening (we live overseas), one of the nights I served some lasagnas I bought from a local caterer. It was literally the MOST delicious thing she’d ever eaten, EVER. On and on she banged.

When I said that I hadn’t made it?

”Oh yes. I know.” 🤣🤣🤣

Coconutter24 · 22/11/2025 14:51

ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyour · 21/11/2025 20:34

I assume you're joking???!!!!

You can't possibly have taken offence to this?! Mildly amusing/vaguely irritating perhaps but offensive?! How?!

Good God.

I wouldn’t really say it’s mildly amusing that a 4 year old was left unsupervised with scissors at all let alone long enough to cut a plait off. I’d say it was lucky the grandchild only ended up with 1 plait instead of starting the day with 2 eyes and only going home with 1!!

Crushed23 · 22/11/2025 14:47

This is ex-MIL, current MIL is a gem, but:

Her response to ANY comment about plans ex-DP and I had was “when am I going to find a boyfriend?”

Self-obsessed, self-pitying bore. So glad I never have to see her again. 😊

Snowwhippet · 22/11/2025 14:28

When we told her we were pregnant with our 4 th child
She said
Oh ,that will be another one with autism then ..

AGirlCalledJohnny · 22/11/2025 14:26

Havetonamechangeforthis001 · 21/11/2025 18:55

I'm so sorry for your loss. I gave birth to my first baby ( a boy ) at 24 weeks and he passed away 2 hours after birth x

My ex mil was a nasty nasty woman. Her abusive son could do no wrong in her eyes. It was all my fault.

I moved put and got my own property when I was pregnant with my DD as he was violent and according to his mum it was my fault his property was disgustingly dirty and that he had no gas or electric 🤦‍♀️ ( we'd been living apart for months by this point and my house was lovely clean and tidy )

When he stole our sons ashes she encouraged him to take them to her house in Ireland and encouraged him to give me fake ashes back

He forwarded me an email once where I'd just given birth to our 2nd DS, he had IUGR and was smaller than my first born son and looked just like him. I had severe PND and his mum told him to leave me on my own with both babies and "she'll soon be begging for your help"

I begged for his help frequently before her "advice" but you know the type, can't do no wrong and their mums believe them 🤦‍♀️

I was only 18 when I met him and I always tried to be polite to her and be the bigger person

She ended up getting cancer and was dying, I'd fled DV years prior and he was found guilty in court and nor allowed to contact or communicate with me or our D.

She got her daughters friend to message me on Facebook with her home phone number and said she was dying of cancer and would like to see my children ( who she hadn't seen for 5 years and my kids were 8 months old and 2.6 years old when I left, they had no memory of her at all + she lived in a different country, she'd met my dc a handful of times )

I will never forget ringing her up and saying it was me, her putting on a sickly voice and asking if her daughter had told me the news. I took great delight in saying yes and I didn't give a fuck. The surprise in her voice 😅 she then told me to enjoy my life and I told her to enjoy what was left of hers.

I don't know if she genuinely did expect me to bring my children to a stranger they didn't know who was dying of cancer so she could cry on them and then die? Or if she knew I'd say no and wanted one more way to paint me to be a villain 🤷‍♀️

I take great pleasure in knowing that she either tried to guilt me or manipulate me even on her death bed and she couldn't

If there's a God he knows why I did it and I honestly don't think he will judge me for it 😅

Edited

Mwah, you’re an absolute Queen 👑