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NEED TO KNOW
- A woman’s mother-in-law has been coming over every week and rearranging their things
- The woman’s mother-in-law started small by moving salt and pepper shakers, but has been testing their boundaries
- She crossed a line after throwing out the woman’s family recipes
A woman says her mother-in-law’s behavior at family dinners has been driving her “insane.”
In a Reddit post, the woman shares that her mother-in-law comes over every Sunday for dinner, and while she is cooking, her mother-in-law rearranges things in her home.
“It started small like she’d move my salt and pepper to what she thought was a better spot or mess with how I had my coffee mugs arranged,” the woman writes. “I didn’t say anything because complaining about that seemed pretty petty.”
Recently, her mother-in-law took it upon herself to rearrange the poster’s spice cabinet, claiming her current “system didn’t make sense and alphabetical was obviously better.”
However, the new method backfired, and it took the poster “forever to find anything after that” because she “had [her] own way of organizing things” beforehand.
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Her mother-in-law’s “help” wasn’t just limited to the kitchen, as she also folded all of their laundry that was on the couch.
“Sounds nice right? Wrong. She put everything in completely wrong places,” the poster writes. “My husband’s work shirts ended up in my drawer, mixed up all the kids clothes, and somehow my underwear ended up with the kitchen towels.”
Fast forward to their most recent Sunday dinner, and she found her mother-in-law “reorganizing my bookshelf and throwing away what she called old magazines.” However, the items weren’t old magazines, but rather “recipe cards in magazine holders,” most of which were handwritten by her late grandmother.
“I asked her to please stop moving my things and explained about the recipe cards. She got all defensive saying she was just trying to help and my house needed organization,” the poster writes.
“My husband sided with her and said I should appreciate that she cares enough to help clean. Now she won’t talk to me and my husband thinks I was rude for not being grateful,” she ends.
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Most people in the comments sided with the woman, noting that her husband should be sticking up for her.
“She is a guest in your home. She should not be rearranging anything without your explicit permission,” one person wrote.
“You are stating a problem in a non-confrontational manner. You need to explain to him that this goes beyond helpful, but seems passive aggressive,” another added. “It was nice of her to fold things but putting them away in the wrong places was malicious and crossing a boundary.”
“He needs to ask his mother why she feels the need to reorganize and change things in your home,” they continued. “He needs to ask his mother if she would like it if his wife came into her home and reorganized things.”
