After hearing what her mother-in-law was telling her 10-month-old daughter, a mother revealed that she no longer trusts her mother-in-law. The 31-year-old mother explained that she and her mother-in-law were getting along fine until she began bugging them about getting their daughter’s ears pierced. She explained to her mother-in-law that her baby would not have her ears pierced until she was old enough to request it, but her MIL called her a “hypocrite.”
“My own mother wouldn’t let me even get my earlobes pierced until I was 10, but my mother-in-law had both my sister-in-laws’ ears pierced when they were tiny, and she keeps going on about how ‘it’s better because they won’t remember it,” the mother wrote on Reddit. “J (her husband) says he supports whatever decision I make because I’d have to clean it because I stay at home with C (her daughter) while he works full time.”
She thought the problem had been resolved until she overheard her mother-in-law conversing with C a few weeks ago. “As I was walking down the stairs, I overheard my mother-in-law telling C that ‘they’re going out shopping and getting her some pretty earrings.’ “I went into the room and told her in no uncertain terms that that was not going to happen, and if I couldn’t trust her to respect my decisions about my own daughter, I would find someone else to look after her,” she explained, adding that she was forced to ask her sister to babysit her daughter.
“Now my mother-in-law keeps trying to arrange for her to stay for a few hours, and she even offered to keep her overnight so J and I could go out, but I refused.” I told her she could come see her, but I didn’t trust her not to get her ears pierced behind my back, so she’d be seeing her unsupervised.” The mother stated that her husband and sister-in-law believe she is overreacting, so she is now questioning whether her actions were justified.
“Of course her children think you’re overreacting; they were raised by this human bulldozer and don’t know any better,” one Reddit user commented. Their opinions on boundaries are untrustworthy. “Also, the notion that your husband defers to you because you are solely responsible for the care and cleaning because you stay at home?” I mean, is he unable to hold a Q-tip between the hours of 6 and 8 p.m.? She is also his daughter, and he has a vested interest in whether or not his mother goes behind both of your backs to do this.”