Mother's Rent-Free Property Offer To Son Comes With Feline Twist, They Have To Babysit Four Cats

"We can’t express differing feelings without the silent treatment"

Maryjane

• Published in Animal Stories
• December 30, 2023

Ah, mother-in-law... They can really be a handful. A difficult mother-in-law may even pose a significant issue as they can get in the way of your parenting, make you uncomfortable in your own family, or even put a strain on your marriage.

For a woman, marriage means a lot of adjustments and new challenges. Developing a caring and cooperative connection with the mother-in-law is one of the most difficult tasks.

While it is simple to maintain a calm and friendly relationship with a giving and kind mother-in-law, you will need to plan your interactions with her carefully and intelligently if you are unlucky enough to be stuck with a cunning and dominating one. Not only with her but also with those in her immediate vicinity, such as your spouse, particularly when it comes to issues involving her and you.

You should make every effort not to internalize or take your mother-in-law's problems personally because, for the most part, they stem from her anxieties and insecurities. The OP is pregnant and did not grow up with cats, but if it’s around all of her belongings, she gets a little nervous.

Yet her MIL is bringing all four of her cats to their house. MIL did say the cats would only be in the house for a day or two, but she later said they'd be there for a whole month.

At this point, the OP and her husband couldn't cope with it, so he called her out in a fit of rage, but it didn't end well.

OP writes

These cats go up on counters and tables, including the kitchen island

MIL originally said the litter boxes would be in the laundry room on the other side

An untrue point that has nothing to do with the solitary complaint about cats

The OP has been mentally trying to figure out if she could have been wrong

Here are a bunch of the topmost comments from other Redditors in response to the story

It seems best to find other accommodations

He's going to clean the litter of four cats

The OP left this in the comments

MIL is a highly, highly successful malpractice lawyer and arguing with her is essentially fruitless once she takes a stance in her own mind. So I guess she’ll hold this over us forever. She’ll never be wrong, but she’d better be if she wants to see her grandchild.

This Redditor wants the OP to get out of that place

This Redditor's cats just force force themselves through the bars

She gave them a plan then changed it

That house will be held over the OP's head

A mother-in-law who manipulates emotions can exert influence over your relationship with your spouse using a variety of covert and overt strategies. It's critical to manage a passive-aggressive mother-in-law delicately to ensure that none of this negatively impacts your marriage.

But the OP got hit despite not being the one who confronted her MIL. Leave your thoughts about this story in the comments section below and share this post as well.

Maryjane