A woman has given her husband an ‘ultimatum’ to either cut ties with his own family or lose her for good – and people actually believe she’s doing the right thing
Sometimes doing the right thing for yourself means hurting someone else.
When you enter a long-term relationship, and especially with getting married, you expect to be welcomed into your partner’s family with open arms. After all, the whole point of tying the knot is to bring two families together, so you would hope your in-laws like spending time with you and treat you as a true member of their family.
This isn’t always the case, though. As one woman is finding out, some parents really don’t approve of the person their child has chosen to marry. In this particular instance, they dislike their son’s wife so much they made “disrespectful” comments about her employment status and accused her of trying to steal her husband away from his family.
In a post on Reddit, the woman explained she and her husband have been married for just over a year and have a six-month-old daughter together. She also said she used to be close with her in-laws when she began dating her partner, but their relationship turned sour after marriage – because the pair chose to combine their last names into a new one instead of her taking his.
Now, with Christmas approaching, the mum wants to spend the holiday with her side of the family so they can be there for her daughter’s first Christmas. However, her husband’s family have accused her of “prioritising her family” over theirs.
She wrote: “Last year, I couldn’t go along with their Christmas tradition because I had to stay close to a hospital because of my risky pregnancy, and my sister-in-law even criticised me, implying that I was weak and saying that ‘we’ve all been pregnant’.
“I told my husband he needed to take control of organising Christmas with his family. He reached out to them, but they’d already made plans without him, expecting us to simply go along. We live 6 hours away from both families, and we’re the ones sacrificing time and money to travel.”
After constantly arguing with her husband’s family, the mum now decided to put her foot down – and told her husband if he doesn’t stand up to his parents, she will leave him. She explained she doesn’t want to bring her daughter up in a volatile environment and doesn’t feel “respected” by her in-laws.
She added: “Now my husband and his parents are fighting. His mum said if things went my way this year, next year, they’d dictate the plans. This was a red flag for my husband. Even after all this, I feel guilty and wonder if I’m the bad guy.”
Commenters on the post were firmly on the woman’s side, with many telling her her baby and husband should come before extended family on either side. They also pointed out while ultimatums can often be extreme, it was needed in this case to make sure her husband knew what was at stake.
One person said: “This is your husband’s responsibility to handle his side. His whole family are bullies. I wouldn’t take disrespect like you are being handed either.” And another added: “You are justified in protecting your family.”
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