18 Stories About Mothers-in-Law That Are Full of Drama

The relationship with a mother-in-law is often unpredictable, leaving you unsure whether you’ll click with her or clash. Almost every daughter-in-law has at least a story or two about her husband’s mother—tales that can sometimes be as riveting as a gripping novel.

• My mother-in-law expresses frequent dissatisfaction with the upkeep of her four-bedroom apartment, despite acknowledging the significant cleaning burden. Suggestions to downsize her living space are met with strong resistance and emotional outbursts. Hiring professional cleaning services is also rejected due to concerns about unfamiliar personnel. Instead, she implicitly expects me to assume the cleaning duties, citing my remote work arrangements as evidence of available free time. My husband’s support for this expectation has created significant tension. My suggestion that he contribute to the cleaning himself was met with strong disapproval from both my mother-in-law and my husband. Prior to this escalation, the cleaning situation was manageable for my mother-in-law, with the assistance of a robot vacuum. The current situation reflects a shift in her expectations, with an implied demand for personal assistance from me.
• My mother-in-law’s birthday is the day before mine. The first year, I got a laptop, she got a Maldives trip — awesome! The next year, hubby had an accident, so I got a bouquet, she got another Maldives trip. He promised to make it up, but then bought me a treadmill. I hate running! We argued, he complained to his mom. Surprisingly, his mom sided with me. She came over and told him he should have switched gifts. He apologized, and we were both shocked at his mom’s intervention.

• I couldn’t believe it when my mother-in-law stood up during our vows. “Are you sure about this?” she asked my husband in front of everyone. She claimed I wasn’t “wife material” because I didn’t bake or sew like she did. The guests gasped, and my husband froze. I ended up walking out for a few minutes to collect myself, but she still claims she was “only trying to help.”
• After I gave birth to my first child, I proudly told everyone we’d named her Clara, a name my husband and I had loved for years. My mother-in-law scoffed, saying, “No, her name is Deborah, after me.” She even had a blanket embroidered with “Baby Deborah.” She introduced my baby with the wrong name for weeks until my husband stepped in.
• I started noticing little things out of place when we weren’t home. My books moved, my fridge rearranged. One day, I caught my mother-in-law letting herself in with a key. When I asked, she casually said, “I made a copy for emergencies. You should thank me!” I felt so violated but had to change the locks before she finally backed off.

• When I was 7 months pregnant, I found out that my husband had an affair. I got so upset that ended up in hospital, and my husband packed his things and left for his mistress. So I am on IV, crying. And then my mother-in-law comes into the ward. She sits on the edge of the bed and says, “Lena, I never liked you, so our relationship is not good. But I think what my son did is disgusting. I’m sorry I didn’t raise him well. We may not be friends, but you’re carrying my grandchild under your heart, and I’m here for you.” There were no particular sentiments: she brought me a nightie, slippers, a cup, home-cooked food, then met me when I was discharged. It was my mother-in-law who picked up my daughter and me from the maternity hospital (my parents are no longer alive). I live with my baby at her place — I can’t afford to rent a flat like I used to. My mother-in-law helps me a lot with my daughter, and I am truly grateful to her for everything.
• My mother-in-law told my daughter that I was a wicked sorceress who cast a spell on her father. She promised to give Daddy money so they could escape to another town. Fortunately, my daughter informed me immediately. My husband accepted the money from his mom, and the three of us moved away from this enchanting woman. We’ve been living in a new city for a month now.

• My husband purchased a plot of land, and we naively allowed my in-laws to plant their beds alongside ours. For three consecutive years, they found various excuses to ruin my beds. Eventually, I gave up on the vegetable garden and left it to them. Despite my repeated explanations, they genuinely don’t understand why I did this.
• My mother-in-law used to arrive early on Saturdays. I would get up a few times, make breakfast, and entertain her. One day, I decided to wake up her son and let him entertain his mom in the morning. He quickly told her not to come on weekends anymore. Now, she arranges meetings in advance. Otherwise, she’s a typical mother-in-law.
• For the past few weeks, my mother-in-law has been insisting on cutting my son’s hair. I made it clear that she wouldn’t be cutting his hair because we have a specific style that he likes. My son is 3 years old, and both my husband and I agree that we love his haircut. When my son returned on Sunday night after spending a couple of days with her, he had a buzz cut. I am extremely upset.

• We’ve been living with my husband’s parents for a month now, and every day feels like torture. His mom is constantly interfering in our lives, asking questions like, “Why are you up so late?” and “What are you cooking for dinner?” Every day it’s something new! I’ve tried to explain to my husband that we can’t continue like this, but he keeps saying, “It’s only temporary, be patient!” How long can we endure this? She thinks everything we do is wrong, and if something goes wrong, she’s quick to say, “I told you so!”
• My husband and I live abroad. Today, during a video call, my mother-in-law jokingly said, “Take your flat because the utilities are expensive.” This “flat” is the one she decided to give us as a wedding present, even though she knew we were moving abroad right after. It’s the flat my husband invested most of his money in, which would have been very useful to us in a foreign country. We can’t even sell it because our in-laws live there. And now they complain that the utilities are too high.
• It’s quite amusing in our family. His family adores me, and my family constantly reminds me how fortunate I am to have met the perfect man. His parents contributed 80% of the money for our apartment and registered it in my name! And my aunt, who considers me her favorite niece, gifted her flat to my husband. This year marks our 35th wedding anniversary!
• I’m not a super girlie and I didn’t care about my wedding flowers, my mother-in-law is a former florist. I let her go wild with the flowers as long as I had input on the colors. She had a blast and my flowers were gorgeous. She also paid for them, since she wanted me to have peonies. We were both happy. © Mokelachild / Reddit

• My boyfriend and I live with my parents, while his family is in another city. We visit them occasionally, but we talk to his mother on the phone every day. Recently, she came to visit us to see if the little girl she heard on the phone was my niece. Before that, she was convinced we were tricking her and that it was my daughter.
• We once did a group birthday thing for several of us who had birthdays that month. There were several desserts available — lemon pie, carrot cake, a fruit thing. But to me, without cake, especially chocolate cake (none of those desserts are to my liking) it was a letdown. I never said a word, had an otherwise lovely time, and made my (not yet) husband stop at the grocery store on our way home for a cake. Never intended to ever mention it. I was mortified when I found out that he told his mother. You know there has never been a family event without a chocolate dessert since then. © northerngurl333 / Reddit
• We entered the metro carriage with my little daughter and mother-in-law, but there were no available seats. A girl wanted to give up her seat to us, but the guy she was with pulled her back, saying she could stand. I’m used to this, but not my mother-in-law! The guy ran out at the next station, red as a tomato, after she got angry. She turned to the girl and said, “Miss, you should run away from him. If he behaves like this with a child and an elderly person, not to mention the fact that the child’s mother is pregnant, he will be just as rude to you.” The guy received judgmental stares from everyone who could hear my mother-in-law, and her voice was loud. A few men immediately gave up their seats to my daughter and me.
• Tonight, I decided to cook my specialty dish to surprise everyone. But what did my mother-in-law do? She called and, without knowing what I was cooking, started giving advice on how to properly fry meat. My husband immediately supported her, saying, “Mom knows better, she’s always done it that way.” Great, I thought, maybe I should just give up my kitchen to her and let her cook since she is now our chef. So, there I was, standing angrily, listening to my husband thanking her for her wisdom over the phone. I felt like I was just a kitchen girl at the back of the family restaurant.

• My mother-in-law said, “Okay, bring your bald sphinx, we’ll give her shelter for a while.” A week later, she added, “By the way, we put an electric heating pad in her room and move her bed from room to room so she doesn’t get bored.”
• My mother-in-law and I don’t get along. Before my daughter was born, we were fine but ever since the labor she’s been very on my husband and my parenting style, how we are handling our child, and critics us on everything. We came to terms with it and try to balance the time we hang out with my husband’s parents because sometimes it’s just too much. We usually try to meet them outside or at our place that way we can go home or put our baby to sleep more easily. Every time we meet with them, my mother-in-law at some point asks to take our daughter for a walk around and disappear with my daughter alone. This weekend I told my husband I find it a bit weird that she insists on taking a walk with the stroller even when we sit in a restaurant. She’s not watching her alone anymore because she did some stuff we don’t agree with and didn’t keep our boundaries. © Exciting-****-5343 / Reddit
• I used to have a normal husband who didn’t pester or nag me. Then, over the years, with kids, problems, and illnesses, he became grumpy. He thought he was doing a lot and I wasn’t doing enough. My mother-in-law advised me, “Do everything as you usually do, but save some tasks for the last 30 minutes before his arrival so he sees them.” Now, when my husband comes home, I finish the laundry, take out the trash, unload the dishwasher, finish cutting the cucumber for the salad, and take food out of the oven to show him what I’ve been doing all day. It works!

• I was excited to meet my future mother-in-law, but she turned out to be a master manipulator. “I heard you were still in touch with your ex, Mark,” she said. “That’s not true!” I exclaimed, feeling my heart race. “Why would you say that?”
  “Mark told me himself,” she replied with a sly smile. “He said you two have been meeting up regularly.”
  I froze when I found out she had been paying Mark to cause trouble. My heart dropped when David said, “I believe her. Mark wouldn’t lie about something like this.”
  “David, you know me better than that,” I pleaded, but the damage was done. The trust between us was shattered, and I could see the doubt in his eyes.

• One day, I noticed our grocery list kept disappearing. Later, I found out my mother-in-law had taken it to “audit” our spending. She emailed me a spreadsheet of our expenses and highlighted where she thought we were wasting money. She even suggested we stop buying coffee because “making it at home saves more.”
• At a family dinner, my mother-in-law raised her glass and said, “Here’s to hoping you give us a grandchild by spring!” I laughed nervously, but then she leaned in and said, “I gave you three months, didn’t I?” She had already started buying baby clothes and referring to herself as “Grandma.”

If you thought these stories were dramatic, wait until you read about the 12 mothers-in-law who turn every family gathering into a nightmare. Stay tuned for even more jaw-dropping tales!