AIBU for feeling uncomfortable with being the subject of MIL April fools?

[JakeyRolling]

My MIL April Fooled my BIL.

When she told me this I said I was uncomfortable she'd done that.

She said she didn't think I'd mind as I'm usually a good sport.

We have a DS and would like one more and while we aren't actively trying (ie tracking ovulation) we aren't not trying, but it hasn't happened yet.

She doesn't know this.

AIBU for being unhappy at her using my womb as the subject of her April Fools joke?

I also hate April fools, all they do is cause stress. I

When I was younger I did something similar though to my dad I told him that his sister was pregnant (she was about 56/57) and he immediately believed me, then rang his brother's to ask how they could help her, they obviously had no idea either, then he rang his sister and she said 'what the fuck are you on about?!' she had two kids already in their thirties. I don't know why I let it get that far

Mil put cling film over the toilet, and my eyesight isn’t great so I didn’t see it. I was desperate for a wee…..(well you can imagine the rest).

So my pelvic floor isn’t amazing after 3 dc and stopping mid flow isn’t easy, so it was pretty annoying as well as embarrassing.

That's definitely in the category of sounds funny (if you're a child), but if you think it through, it's just deliberately humiliating and upsetting somebody in order to have a laugh at their expense. It's a bit like the old pulling a chair away that somebody is about to sit on - at best, it's going to end in pain and discomfort; at worst, it can lead to lifelong disability. Hilarious, eh?

No, its not. April fools can be all sorts of things. It doesn't have to be incredible, unbelievable or shocking at all.

OK, mine wasn't the definitive dictionary definition, but if it isn't something absurd or outrageous, how is it actually funny? It isn't an elaborate prank designed to enable hilarity to ensue - it's just basically telling people pointless lies and then later admitting it.

Telling someone you’re pregnant isn’t a joke.

It might just about work if you manage to convince people that you (not somebody else) are pregnant, if you're, say, over 60 or male but reporting that a woman of childbearing age - especially one whose life circumstances mean that she could very conceivably (no pun intended) be wanting a(nother) child anyway is pregnant is just stupid, may be liable to cause upset and is not funny at all.

OP's MIL sounds like one of these pathetic attention-seeking tommy two-shitters elevenerifers, who just make up random stuff of no great importance or interest in the first place.

They won't just make up elaborate lies about the time the Queen phoned them and begged them to lead the SAS in a high-profile assassination plot, but will claim to have gone somewhere on the bus yesterday when they actually took the train there on Tuesday - nobody cares in the least.

That's not an April Fool. It's just weird.

Sorry but it's just never okay to use a pregnancy announcement as an April Fools joke regardless of whether or not you know if someone is trying or not. It's very insensitive.

The only way that would be even remotely amusing (still not funny) was if BIL was somehow involved in your life to the extent he'd be relieved to find out it wasn't true. Like oh thank goodness because we babysit/do school runs every week for them as it is.

YANBU fake pregnancy jokes are hurtful to a lot of people. After suffering a MC in April 2016 they hurt even more so to me personally but I know I’m not the only person that will feel that hurt. Totally unacceptable and YANBU to be hacked off with her downright mean trick.

YANBU OP. Not funny and really just bizarre. I'd be bloody furious.

The only pregnancy April Fool I've ever been a part of was pranking a male friend who let's just say 'got about a bit' with a message from a number he didn't know pretending to be some unidentified previous one night stand who was pregnant.

It wasn't based on a real Woman, we just knew him well enough to know that he'd probably had a few one nighters in the previous couple of months so he might believe it. In fact we sent the message when we knew he was mid-one-night-stand.

He didn't buy it for a second

Not the slightest bit funny. Really appalling actually.

Oh ffs so much drama and hysterics over an utter non event.

Mil: son, did you know op is pregnant again?

Son: no I didn't

Mil: lol April fool

Mumsnet: burn the witch!

so much drama and hysterics over an utter non event

Are we reading the same thread? Haven't seen any drama or hysterics - just people saying why they don't think it's a suitable subject for a prank.

@ShaneTwane and how would it be if the person who was the butt of the joke had just had an early miscarriage or had failed to conceive once again, how can this be funny. if MIL had said she was pregnant to BIL fair enough but don't use someone else, you never know what is going on with something so personal

I don't understand how that is a joke, but no I wouldn't be offended - I don't understand why you would be?

@SquirrelG

I don't understand how that is a joke, but no I wouldn't be offended - I don't understand why you would be?

My DP and I stopped using contraception nearly 2 years ago, but no joy yet. Nobody knows but us (and Mumsnet). If somebody joked that I was pregnant I'd be very upset.

Make sense now?

@Nightlystroll

What did she do? Tell your bil that you were pregnant? If you hadn't been trying (which she doesn't know about), would you have been offended? If my mil had told my bil I'd broken my leg and I hadn't, I wouldn't be bothered. So I don't think I'd be bothered about a joke about my personal health. Maybe you're just understandably over-sensutive at the moment. But if she didn't know you it was something you were worried about, it's hard to blame her really.

A broken leg is hardly the same as wanting to be pregnant but not yet being pregnant

My mums husband did that to her. She cried 🤨

YANBU

It’s weird, insensitive and down right insulting.

It’s not even a “fool”. It’s a statement that is completely plausible that happens to be untrue.

An April Fool is persuading someone that something inherently implausible is true. It would have been a fool if she told your BIL she was pregnant.

Some people just arnt funny

People need to really grow thicker skin. Someone joking about being pregnant doesn't change your own experiences with infertility. It changes absolutely nothing. It was a cheap joke that some people find funny and some don't.

People need to really grow thicker skin. Someone joking about being pregnant doesn't change your own experiences with infertility. It changes absolutely nothing. It was a cheap joke that some people find funny and some don't.

I would agree with you if the MIL had herself (presumably no longer of normal child-bearing age) claimed to be pregnant as an April Fool; but other people's bodily autonomy is not yours by right to tell lies and laugh about.

In fact, there was a rather good comedy song on The Now Show (Radio 4) yesterday, where they were laughing about AFD being the one opportunity of the year when you get to tell lies, be unpleasant/blunt to people and test the water by saying something outrageous, all with the safety net of "April Fool!" and being able to turn the blame back on to the victim for not understanding the 'joke'.