Should married couples be expected to store their in-law’s items in their personal closets?
Ask anyone with in-laws and they will tell you that this sort of relationship isn't the easiest to navigate. While most in-laws are generally pleasant enough, some can be very demanding and create a lot of issues for married couples.
One of the biggest complaints that most couples will have is that an in-law is too interfering or domineering in their relationship, when they need to mind their own business.
These realities were highlighted in a recent online post in which a mother-in-law insists on having her clothing stored in her daughter-in-law's closet, resulting in a massive fight.
Should married couples be expected to store their in-law’s items in their personal closets?
A Reddit post published on June 11th, reported on by Monica Greep from Newsweek, has gone viral with 9,700 upvotes and 1,100 comments.
The author begins her post by explaining that she is married, and that her husband is a 26-year-old man who is also a "mama's boy". But things have gotten worse recently ever since the husband invited his mother to move into the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife, without getting her permission first.
The couple cleared out a few bedroom drawers for the mother to use, but the mother-in-law soon began to complain about the lack of storage and asked the author if she could use part of her wardrobe to hang up dresses.
The wife refused to share her closet, and so the mother-in-law waited until the wife was at work to move all of the wife's possessions into the kitchen and living room cabinets, and the mother took over her entire closet for herself.
People require personal space and boundaries.
Upon seeing that all of her things had been removed from her own closet, the author became enraged and immediately grabbed all of her mother-in-law's clothes out of her closet and threw them out of the bedroom.
The wife confronted her mother-in-law and then immediately went to go stay with her own mother. The author's husband kept telling her that she was 'petty' for her reaction, and she should have dealt with things better.
The wife made it clear to her husband that she was already being incredibly accommodating by letting the mother-in-law stay—even though she was never asked if it was okay beforehand—and that she was being extra generous by letting the mother-in-law store some of her things in the couple's bedroom, even though she felt that it 'invaded their privacy'.
What do you think? Was the author entirely justified in how she reacted, especially by throwing her mother-in-law's clothes out of her closet? Or should the author be kinder to her mother-in-law and more gracious, since she's only staying temporarily?
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