My MiL is worse than yours...

[SpaceBunInstaHun]

Okay, I do fully believe mine is the worst creature to roam this planet, but I'm interested in your stories.
I believe I could write a book on mine without any exaggeration and it would be an unbelievable read.
To clarify we're NC with her now, it was just impossible to have her in our lives in any way.
But if you'd like to tell me something about yours that sounds unbelievable please do.
I couldn't choose even 20 top things that are frankly mental, but my personal favourite is telling anyone who'll listen we stopped her taking her dgc to the park, when in fact she would arrive past 8pm during winter and expect to take my 6 month old daughter out. When I suggested we did daytime at the park i was both controlling and unreasonable.
She doesn't work or have daytime commitments.

[DaveyJonesLocker]

Joked she'd drown my baby if it was born a girl....

Also, when DS was born video called 3 million times when told everyone was safe but exhausted and we'd get in touch later.

I'm actually more mad about the second because I felt so shit and that ringing killed me.

[ThatshallotBaby]

Thank you @SpaceBunInstaHun . She’s like a silent assassin. I am now very low contact. Dh sadly has been so well trained by her he’s still in FOG.
Best thing I’ve found it not to think about her at all

[Overreactionpossibly]

I think that the reason that there ends up being a lot of 'mother in law bashing' is because they end up such a big part of your life and your partner has such an emotional tie to them.
It means that where you would have usually just walked away from someone who's behaviour was unacceptable, you end up having to put up with it. I'm sur that you could say the same about DILs but I don't think that it's quite the same dynamic.

My mother in law liked to do really minor things that were easily explained as accidents but happened too frequently to have been accidents. My husband was too caught up in the FOG and too scared of the consequences to deal with it properly.

Things like, waiting until I had gone to bed and then eating the lunch that I had made myself for lunch the next day. She did this multiple times.

Purposely trying to catch us having sex, like walking into our room without knocking late at night.

Something would always go missing after her visit. Something small but inconvenient like the potato masher, my toothbrush etc

This is all in addition to trying to make other people look bad and some serious emotional manipulation. She was a horrible person.

[WatchingGreysAgain]

@EarthPunchingBack

My MIL is amazing and my mum is an absolute nightmare.

Just for balance 🙄.

Same here

[Whatwhatwhatnow]

My evil MIL-to-be didn't actually manage to become my MIL because she split up my fiancé and me a few months before the wedding. As far as I am concerned she has no redeeming features. I pity whoever ends up with her as an actual MIL (although she'd probably be quite sweet if she finds a DIL who's happy to just do whatever she demands).

[ThatshallotBaby]

Sounds familiar @Overreactionpossibly
Mil is a keen gardener, and very good. I’m a fumbling amateur, I remember once her telling me not to pull out some unknown plants, I didn’t know whether to trust her, and that they were actually some kind of invasive weed.
I pulled them out. Couldn’t risk it.

[LongerThanADryJanuary23]

Mil 1 was truly a piece of work, no one was ever going to be good enough for her precious first born, she tried her best at every avenue to drive a wedge between me and pfb and they both thought the sun shone out of each other's arses.

Mil 2 never had a kind word to say about anyone, she would bitch about every single person she knew, struggled to keep friends and she was manipulative to boot, she used to pout (literally!) when she didn't get her own way. Toddlers look quite cute when they pout, 70+ women who should know better just look ridiculous.

[Passthechocolatesplease]

@Throwncrumbs

I could throw in a few about my DIL too!

Love this 😊

[2023bebetter]

I could also write the book so I will save my anecdotes for my book.

[MeMyCatsAndMyBooks]

Mines currently giving us the silent treatment because I dared to use my own car.

She's stressed me out to the point I went into early labour.

When me and DH first got together and moved in together we didn't have much money and she'd regularly demand money off us as she'd have no gas/electricity so we'd go without meals because of her poor money management skills.

She caused a massive family rift because she didn't get her own way.

She caused a family argument at one of my child's birthday parties for no apparent reason.

She has her good days, then morphs into that ^ and I wonder why we even bother. Do I win?

[Hobbesmanc]

Mines hard work sometimes. But she is family and that's important.

[stemthetide]

It always surprises me how these awful women managed to produce sons worth marrying.

[Trixiefirecracker]

@stemthetide

It always surprises me how these awful women managed to produce sons worth marrying.

My mother was awful, I actively chose not to be like her. Maybe this is the case for the sons?

[OfDumplings]

My MIL said to my husbands close female friend at our wedding reception in front of me, I always thought you two would get together. She also got up and made an impromptu speech at our wedding and tried to invite loads of people we didn’t know, she also,turned up in a cream chiffon dress with matching hat.

Need I write more?

[Wexone]

@EarthPunchingBack
My MIL is amazing and my mum is an absolute nightmare.
Just for balance 🙄.
Same here - Could write 10 novels on my own

[takealettermsjones]

@stemthetide

It always surprises me how these awful women managed to produce sons worth marrying.

I always wonder if this is just what happens sometimes when a son is completely loved, cherished and treated like a prince - the sons are happy, well rounded adults (well done MIL!) and therefore happy to treat a wife well, have a family, etc. But then the MILs are suddenly in a situation where their precious son has a different priority. Some MILs can accept it, some can't.

[Bovrillavigne124]

I've got pleurisy and my MIL drove 2 hours to come help me with one year old, has sent me to bed for 3 days to rest, and is generally the sweetest kindest human I've ever met, not all MIL are bad!

[ReneBumsWombats]

@ReamsOfCheese

Mine turned up at our 1 bed flat 3 weeks after DC1 was born (CS), and lied about hotel bookings. As the day went on, we started wondering when she was going to check into her hotel. Eventually, around eight, she said, "well, I'm ready for bed."
So one of us said, "Great, which hotel are you at?"
To which she looked my husband in the eye and replied "I'm staying with you."
For. A. Week.
She tore apart my baby's nursery and insisted on driving to a shop to buy us an air bed and bedding we didn't want.
And she did not lift a finger to help. Every meal we cooked she took a bite then left it. Every meal we ordered, even though she picked her food, she took a bite then left it. Every time the baby cried she complained that she hadn't got to hold him for long enough and argued with me or DH that baby's nappy didn't need changing. She kept sticking her fingers in the baby's mouth even though we asked her not to and when the baby got explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting (probably a total coincidence), she complained about the noise of the baby in the night while DH and I were run ragged cleaning up after the poor baby.
And she brought her own breakfast cereal. Because she didn't want to eat any of that dodgy foreign muck. On the Isle of Man.
The best part was, when she left, she went to the toilet one last time and wiped shit all over the toilet roll holder and bathroom door. 🤢

The best part was, when she left, she went to the toilet one last time and wiped shit all over the toilet roll holder and bathroom door.

What?

[GoAGoGo]

@Pinkdafodils

Do any of you have children? Then you're likely to be a MIL too one day.

I can imagine MN imploding with the wailing mother in law's in a few years time with this lot becoming mother in law's themselves.
Then the threads will turn into daughters in law from hell 😂

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

My MiL was lovely, and TBH I’ve never known anyone with a real nightmare MiL - a bit fussy or stuffy maybe, but certainly bearable.

OTOH there are two perfectly nice couples who I know very well, who have absolute bitch-from-hell DiLs, who were evidently determined from the start to completely estrange their husbands and dcs from their ILs, and even from siblings. They have been responsible for a great deal of unhappiness.

[pinknsparkly]

My MIL is amazing. My mum couldn't care less. Some mums are crap, some are great. Whether they are in laws or biological isn't really relevant surely?

[Alexandernevermind]

Have a look at the American TV series "I love a Momma's boy", it's hilarious and terrifying. The dynamic is an interesting one and I think comes from a very misogynistic place. Its very controlling women who have put their whole lives into raising their sons as society have dictated. The only power they have is in their home and from their son putting them on a pedestal. The dil comes along, and suddenly the mother isn't the centre of her little prince's life any more, so it becomes a battle for power. If the dil has weak boundaries she gets walked all over.
My mil is lovely, btw, so no complaints from me.

[ChatTilMidnight]

My MIL was also lovely just for balance, we went to a line dancing class together and had a ball. She was fantastic to the children, thoughtful, kind and quiet. My own Mother was great too, but had a real presence about her. Dh loved her like I loved his Mum. Sadly we have now lost both. Left a big hole in our lives. My sister also has a lovely MIL.

I don't doubt there are crazy MIL my other sister has a narcissistic MIL and I have witnessed her madness first hand, but knowing she would pull a fast one on one occasion I outsmarted her. She was visibly peeved. I didn't do it to piss her off I did it because she tried to sneakily exclude someone from a baby shower who wanted to be there and who my sister would want to be there.

[Cliff1975]

I have a theory- there are people who have fantastic relationships with their MIL. But they usually either no longer have a mum or they don't get on with their mum. I have yet to meet anyone who has a fantastic relationship with both. It is all about female jealousy and competition. So is there anyone who has both?

[OllyBJolly]

My MIL is lovely. She and FIL have always treated my DCs (not DH's) as if they were truly family (as do SIL and BIL) and they are incredibly generous to my GC who they fully accept as their GGC. As I said at our wedding, the big bonus about marrying DH was getting to be part of their family. They're great fun.

Sadly MIL now has Alzheimers and it's heartbreaking.