The stepmother was her former best friend, who had an affair with the author's husband.
The history of this one is messy, so buckle up.
A woman turned to Reddit on November 18th to get some advice as to whether or not she's in the wrong on a recent thing she said to her daughter.
In a viral post that has already received 10,000 upvotes, the mother explains how only two years ago, her husband left her for her best friend. Her ex and former friend are now married.
Though the poster and her husband were married for 20 years, she states that her husband's affair wasn't a major surprise. Her mother-in-law even warned her on their wedding day that he's the type of man who "won't stay loyal".
But what really stung for the mother and author of this Reddit post, was the betrayal of her best friend. She considered her to be like a sister.
Major betrayal, one after the other.
This woman has been no-contact with either her ex-husband or former best friend since the affair and she currently goes through third parties to communicate. She explained how she skips any events that the two of them attend, and family birthdays are separately celebrated.
The women's children are in their late teens to early twenties, and she states that they respect the boundaries of not mentioning her ex-husband or former friend in front of her, which she greatly appreciates.
That said, this mother has found herself in a bit of a pickle. Her 16-year-old daughter recently asked if it would be okay if she called her stepmother by 'Mom'.
The woman went on to say:
"I told her that no, I'm not okay with that woman being called 'mom', but she could call her that if she wanted to. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean she doesn't have to do it. I won't be mad at her she calls her 'mom'."
This request caused a divide between the mother's children.
While the mother's response to her 16-year-old daughter was perfectly kind and reasonable, her other children became very angry with their younger sibling for even asking, and hurting their mom's feelings in that way after everything their stepmother had done.
When her other children got mad at their sibling, the mother came to the defense of her 16-year-old and shut it down.
All in all, the conversation ended constructively, respectfully, and everyone seemed pretty happy.
Not so fast...bring on the monster-in-law.
But that's not the end of this story. Even after this situation was resolved, the woman's former mother-in-law called her screaming, and accused her of "alienating the stepmother" by saying she wasn't okay with her being called 'mom'.
The woman explained how deep this betrayal ran, as the stepmom had been her "best friend" for 15 years, and that her kids "considered her their aunt.
"When the affair happened the oldest kids stopped talking to her but the youngest was still very attached to her. Maybe that's why she feels comfortable with calling her 'mom'. Either way, it's her choice."
After being screamed up by her former mother-in-law, the woman took to Reddit to ask if she was in the wrong for the way she handled the situation.
Overwhelmingly, internet users deemed that she was not in the wrong, and applauded the mother for handling such an upsetting situation with such maturity. Others went on to say that the situation is none of the mother-in-law's business, and the mom handled it with class.
The woman later returned to Reddit to reveal that she learned her former mother-in-law was the one who encouraged her daughter up to ask if she could call her stepmother 'mom'.
All In all, commenters said that the mother exercised grace in the face of a difficult situation, and that she was an excellent parent.
What do you think? You would let your children call their step-parent by Mom or Dad after they had an affair with your spouse, and played a significant role in destroying your marriage?
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